Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

We left the Hall of Ancestors after kowtowing to the statues of the old ones.

I secretly extinguished one of the incense sticks, and immense pressure immediately fell on my shoulders. My Soul even shuddered as it happened, though it resisted the push of whatever Soul magic was present in the hall.

However, as soon as we stepped over the doorway, the pressure was gone, and I extinguished the other incense stick as well. The smoke swirling around me dissipated into nothing and the fragrance lingering around dispersed like the fine mist.

We backtracked and soon came back outside, the large stone door locking behind us.

“Don’t resist.” Elder Li lifted his finger and touched my forehead. I felt a tingle, and let it happen. A strand of knowledge made its way into my head and I opened my eyes wide. It was the key to open the doorway.

“As my personal Disciple, you are allowed to know the key. However, do not share it with anyone, and bringing anyone who is not a Core Disciple inside with you is also not allowed. Not that they would survive anyway. Do not enter without those incense sticks. The Soul pressure will crush you instantly.” Elder Li repeated the warning.

I solemnly nodded and promised I would heed his advice. I tasted the Soul pressure with just one stick burning, and it was already so strong. I could resist it with just some discomfort, but I doubted it would be so easy if my Soul bore the full power. No matter how resistant it was, my Soul was not indestructible.

We returned back, and I went into the arena where I summoned Tiny. I placed the main Core inside him and he powered up in an instant.

[Alright Tiny, show me what you got. Defend yourself!] I said and attacked, but my heart wasn’t in it. I slapped the golem left and right, and while he did well to block some of my hits, it was just too slow. Even more so if I flashed the Century in a Blink technique.

When boosting my perception, Tiny appeared to be frozen in time. I relaxed my attacks and took that time to slowly walk around contemplating my life.

It had been already more than a year since I gained access to magic. I learned so many things. How to manipulate the Elements, gravity, and even time to a certain extent. I could slice through reality and create rifts in space. I could teleport with the help of Formations and create massive destruction with but a thought.

My eyes turned into beams of death and my mind was sharper than any blade. I could regenerate fully from mortal wounds and survive unimaginable torture without a scratch. I could have been a god back on Earth. Yet here, I was but an ant.

And just when I thought I could step higher, and gain new abilities, I blocked my own advance. What irony. The person with possibly the best talent in the Sect got stuck at the peak of Nascent Soul Realm. It was a joke.

Luckily I was no quitter. For every problem, there was a solution, even though many of them might not seem wise. Extreme problems require drastic solutions, unfortunately.

I turned around and focused Qi into my fist. I felt the power magic brought me and punched. My fist collided with Tiny’s hard reinforced body, and the stone yielded.

It shattered like ice, cracks, and fractures splitting the rock apart at lightning speed. He could use Golden Qi while I couldn’t, yet I outclassed my creation in every way. What was the point of having a guardian golem that was weaker than me? Entertainment? Companionship?

I sighed and released the time dilation.

Tiny’s arm exploded and he stumbled back, falling after losing balance. I slowly went over and gathered the pieces and stored them away. I did the same with Tiny while thinking about how I would have to repair him again. I really needed something stronger than stone to make his body out of.

It finally happened. I expected it to, yet I was still surprised when it did.

The Law Enforcement Hall organized a thorough search of the mountain after I gave them the Memory Orb and martial law was established. Nobody could enter or leave the Sect, not even the Elders. The whole place was on lockdown while they searched the Sect far and wide.

As far as I heard, many were brought in for questioning, and though most came back without issues, the few that didn’t, made the atmosphere tense as everyone wondered what was happening.

We learned it all after a week.

An arena in the Inner Sect was repurposed and filled with people in chains. And then came the announcement. The traitors of the Sect, as well as those responsible for the recent attack, were captured.

I went to look, and truly, there were a lot of people. Most of them I had never seen before, but a great many among them were those that I cut down. White Minks disbanded and many Disciples disappeared, though they managed to catch most of them. The majority of traitors were Inner Disciples, though there was even one from the Core Sect, the bastard.

A large crowd gathered, curiously observing what was happening. Some even stood on roofs of nearby houses to see what was going on. Many Elders were gathered, most of whom wore somber expressions while keeping the convicts under control.

Elder Ting then came to the fore and began giving a speech.

It was all about how the Sect was created to resist the outside world, protect its people from enemies, and make it a safe haven in a land of chaos. He spoke of brotherhood and friendship, how Cultivators should help one another, lift each other higher, and advance on the path of Cultivation together, like a big family.

He spoke of trust that was established over the long decades and centuries of the Sect’s existence and how difficult it was to keep it going.

Then his tone changed and he pointed at the people in chains behind him.

A dark truth came to light as he spoke of their evil deeds. They worked with the enemy, with the Brilliant Sword Sect, feeding them information on the movements of both Disciples and Elders, especially during the chaos of the recent Beast tide.

During the interrogation, it came to light that many deaths which were previously thought to be nothing but coincidences, were in reality insidious traps set up by the other side in attempts to weaken the younger generation of the Myriad Beasts Sect. And it worked. Many strong beasts were lured and guided to areas where Elders were fewer and under greater pressure so that many slipped through the cracks, slaughtering the young ones.

Elder Tin spoke of conspiracies they had discovered during their investigation, even plans to overthrow the current Sect Master. They weren’t very good plans, but they were plans nonetheless.

Brilliant Sword Sect was preparing for war, that much was clear. However, to secretly set up so many informants and spies, it had to be going on for at least a century. For them to remain undiscovered for so long showed just how deeply they were entrenched. They were everywhere. Even the Law Enforcement Hall itself had a few rotten eggs, one of them at the brink of becoming a Core Disciple and gaining a much larger influence in the Sect.

They didn’t mention the Memory Orb, but it was clear that it helped them kickstart the investigation. Without it, they probably wouldn’t know where to start.

“If anyone is not convinced by my words, look at it yourselves!” Elder Ting shouted and a hologram appeared in the sky from a sphere he was holding in his hand. It looked like a Memory Orb, though it was clearly different. More advanced and complicated I would say. It showed images and instances where the people in them were clearly displayed conversing, planning, and sometimes even secretly killing their own people and making it look like an accident.

Their traitorous nature was clear for all to see, and that was but a fraction of the truth. A chorus of disapproval came from the crowd, and if the Elders weren’t in the way, it looked like they wanted to drown the chained ones in spit.

“We have questioned every man, woman, and child, and their exact words were recorded in the Orb of Sin. The guilty ones had their Souls searched and memories extracted to be examined thoroughly! There are no innocents among them, and the punishment for traitors is death! Just as these snakes spilled the blood of their brothers, so will we spill theirs! Anyone not convinced with our verdict is welcome to look at the evidence. However, that will not change what will happen here today!” Elder Ting Shouted, his words full of vigor and righteous fury.

“May their Souls feed the generations to come and may their deaths be a warning to those that wish to betray the trust of their kin! May the Myriad Beasts Sect forever prosper!”

Thousands of Cultivators shouted the last sentence, repeating it in harmony. It was like thunder, and the criminals lowered their heads in fear and shame. Nobody was going to speak for them. The evidence was revealed publicly, leaving no room for complaints.

One of the chained prisoners, a woman, began suddenly screaming and crying, begging for mercy. She was ignored. Nobody moved, except for Elder Ting whose head whipped around and his gaze pierced through her.

Even at a distance, I felt her Soul explode. The concentrated beam of Soul pressure shattered it in an instant. She went quiet and her body went limp. A second later it began decaying and before anyone even knew what was going on, she already turned to dust. The prisoners began to panic.

“All of you, silence!”

Elder Ting shouted, his voice like thunder. He and a few other Elders made a circle around the arena and lifted their hands at the same time. A grand formation formed beneath them, a glowing white diagram dozens of meters wide. It then flashed with light and I heard a thousand screams as the Souls were ripped from the prisoners’ bodies and torn apart in a second. Their bodies then took on golden flames and began to glow delightfully bright before turning to ashes in mere moments.

“Purged of the filth, the Sect is now clean. The traitors will feed the plants and the beasts of the land with their ashes, and their Souls will feed our new generations. The Law Enforcement Hall is here to keep peace and order. Do not break it!”

With the last warning said, the Elders retreated.

The Disciples lingered in the area, conversing in whispers and debating what happened in the last few days, many of them still shocked by the revelations.

I stood rooted in place, staring into space, and barely keeping my body from twitching.

Even if they were all under the Golden Core Realm, that many Souls at once was just too much. They were all stuffed into my Sea of Consciousness, and I struggled to devour them all. Especially since my Soul was already beyond full. The only thing to do with the excess Soul Essence that came so rapidly was to build my Sea of Consciousness.

And so I did.

I expanded the bedrock, making it thicker, stronger, wider… I created mountains at the edges of my mind and populated them with thorns and poisonous vines. Rivers of magma rose through the cracks, making the area around them stuffy and hot. Anyone trying to break into my mind would be having a really bad day.

With the last parts of Soul Essence, I created a raised hill in the middle and built a foundation for my fortress where my Soul would reside. In mere minutes I had done something that would usually take months.

All the memories and experiences allowed for such an insane degree of understanding of Cultivation that a lifetime of experimentation and training would come nowhere close to me. I had the knowledge and experience from thousands of people and beasts in equal measure, an understanding so deep, that the abyss would be a shallow puddle in comparison.

Unfortunately, that was only for the first three Realms of Cultivation. Foundation Establishment, Spirit Accumulation, and Nascent Soul. I understood those three perfectly.

However, that was but a fragment of the whole, and the few I absorbed from the Golden Core, carried awfully little knowledge of their realm in comparison. Each of them knew their part, and rarely did they overlap.

The Paths chosen were different, even if some of them started at a similar point. Shao Lin and Sicario both focused on speed, but the nature of their Cultivation was vastly different. I needed more examples to see the whole. Hopefully, that would happen soon.

I shook my head and returned back to the real world. I had a merchant to meet.