Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

It was after the end of another hard battle that left Gerald exhausted and sweaty. Luckily he could wash himself in the sleeping chambers and change his clothes. He put away the skin-tight combat attire and wore a simple pair of pants and a thin shirt.

He then put on a pair of boots and made his way along the long spiraling hallways up towards the surface. But soon, he came to a dead end. However, as he already knew the place, he reached out and grabbed an invisible metal ring on the side wall.

After giving it a quick pull, the stone walls shifted, revealing a staircase going up. He took it and came out into the simple room like so many times before. Pulling the invisible metal ring on the outside, the secret passage closed again, like it was never there in the first place.

It was night. Gerald walked out into the cold and looked at the clear sky. A rare occurrence during the winter months.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?”

Gerald looked to the side and saw Elder Li similarly looking at the sky. It felt so weird. Even as he looked at the man, in his heart he felt as if he wasn’t even there. An incredible cloaking technique.

However, Elder Li did not turn and instead continued staring at the sky, three rings of solid light above him magnifying the stars.

Having already studied for so long, Gerald finally knew what he was looking at. Glyphs. Magical glyphs did various things, similar to a circuit board for electronics, only for spells.

More often than not, the outside edge was a circle and smaller geometrical patterns populated the inside. Squares, triangles, and runes were all that was needed to stabilize any spell in existence. The combination required for each one was of course difficult to figure out, but they were a much more efficient way to use magic. It used less energy, was much more stable, and for those that lacked good visualization skills, crucial for learning complicated Mystic Arts.

[They are.] Gerald said quietly and lifted his hands and a similar glyph formed between them and expanded, serving as a magnifying lens. He then created another, and another. The stars expanded in his view as the small window he was looking through allowed him to see the distant worlds without atmospheric distortion. [And there are so many of them.]

The Elder quietly hummed and watched the sky in silence. It was dark and cold, yet the two wore but simple clothing, unperturbed by the biting chill.

“I have always been fascinated with the night sky. The vastness of it. As I get stronger I can peer deeper into the cosmos, yet, the more I look, the more I see.” The Elder took a small notebook and scribbled something into it. Then his eyes practically glowed with magic.

“Yet no matter how hard I try, I cannot detect a single speck of Qi. Even the Divine Eye cannot pierce the Void.”

Gerald stayed silent. The Divine Eye he was referring to was just another technique, similar to Magic, or Arcane Eyes, only much stronger. And the Elder was apparently studying divination, allowing him to see things unseen. Like strings of fate connecting people like a web.

Gerald didn’t believe in all that nonsense, but the fact remained, the Elder knew things he should not be able to.

“Yet you…” He looked at Gerald. “Strings of fate keep pulling you higher, toward the stars. I have never before seen anyone like it. Why is that?”

Gerald sighed. He knew he would have to reveal the truth one day. [I’m not from here.] He stated, simply.

Elder Li looked at him. “Not from the Old Plum village?”

Gerald shook his head. [Did you know that, on the other side of the world, there’s another continent?]

Elder Li frowned and dismissed his magic, focusing completely on him. “Are you trying to tell me you came from there? Across the Endless Sea? That’s impossible.”

Gerald shook his head. [There was... an accident. I was mistakenly teleported to this place, destroying the Portal Nexus of the Brilliant Sword Sect in the process.] He admitted it. He admitted it all. He knew the two Sects didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye, so revealing the truth might offer him protection in case he was ever discovered by the other side.

Elder Li stared at him wide-eyed. “That was you? Really? You destroyed their Portal Nexus?”

Gerald nodded seriously. [Yes.] He had nothing to hide anymore.

“Bahahahahaha! Ohohohoho! Hehehehehe!” Elder Li burst out laughing like a madman with tears nearly running down his face as he held his stomach and howled.

“So it was you! Hahaha! A weakling, destroying their most prized possession! Hohoho!”

Seeing such a large man that was usually so serious laughing so hard made Gerald feel weird. He waited in silence until the Elder released it all out of his systems and just watched the sky. The moons were so bright, slowly moving across the heavens.

[It wasn’t my intention to destroy it. It just… sort of happened.]

“Oh, my boy…” Elder Li clapped Gerald on the shoulder. “It doesn’t matter if you intended it or not, the fact remains that you gave a painful blow to those arrogant pricks. They have been building that ugly thing for more than a decade! About time someone brought it down.”

Gerald nodded. [But will I get in trouble?]

“Why would you?” Elder Li said, perplexed. “In my opinion, you should get a reward, though I doubt anything will come out of it even if we were to reveal it to the Sect. The old dogs will probably find a thousand excuses to avoid paying. It’s not like it was something they were working toward, though I’m sure they would like knowing one of ours gave the neighbors a heavy blow.”

Gerald shrugged. He expected as much.

[But why did you say it was impossible to cross the Endless Sea?]

Elder Li shook his head at the question. “Hah, you really aren’t from here… The Endless Sea, compared to the danger of the Dragons to the north, is way worse, a guaranteed death! While people returned from the frozen north, nobody ever returned from the oceans. Not after entering the Haze of Eternity.”

[Haze of Eternity?]

“It’s the name we gave the chaotic storm of Qi out at sea. Nobody can see through it. Powerful creatures inhabit those waters, monsters you can’t even begin to imagine. Better to stay on land and live a fruitful life.”

[What about flying over?] Gerald asked. Surely the Haze of Eternity didn’t stretch to space, right?

But, Elder Li just shook his head. “Only a God can travel through the Void. And we are no Gods.” He turned his gaze up, towards the sky. “The sun is a giver of life, yet it is also the one to take it. We are protected here on the ground, but the higher you go, the harder it becomes to control your powers.”

He opened his palm and a perfectly white cube formed, floating a few centimeters above. “Here, even the weakest of us can perfectly control Qi, given enough practice. But up there…” The cube began to seemingly rot and decay. “Up there it gets harder and harder, until you can’t do it anymore. And you fall.”

[Truly?] Gerald asked, shocked.

“Yes…” Elder Li sounded sad as he gave the confirmation. “Forever locked to this one cursed piece of rock, flying helplessly through the Void. A tiny pocket of safety in the endless darkness.”

[Wow…] Gerald looked at the sky, at the stars, and sighed. So much for traveling to Mars with magic. He could just dream about it while looking at the moon.

[Wait! What’s that?!] Gerald expanded the magnifying glyphs and zoomed in on the moon. His eyes opened wide. [Is that…?!]

“A structure? Yes, yes it is…” Elder Li said with melancholy in his voice. “Sooner or later everyone notices it, and their reactions are usually similar to yours. We suspect it’s one of the old strongholds of the ancestors. It sits there, out in the open for all to see, yet nobody can reach it. Mocking us for our weakness, our incompetence.”

[Why? Can’t you fly up there?]

Elder Li clenched his fist as he looked at the moon. “Only a God can travel through the Void.”

[Only a God…] Gerald frowned. He repeated that saying for the second time already. [How do you know only a God can travel the Void? I thought there weren’t any left?]

“There aren’t. It’s just an old saying from the ages past. But, clearly, someone was up there, leaving a mark on the moon. And who else could it be, but a God? We certainly can’t reach it, and it was not because of the lack of trying.”

Gerald didn’t mention that getting to the moon was quite easy in fact. Heck, mere Mortals did it, though it did take a lot of time and careful planning at first. But they did it in the end. Hell, back on Earth people were already preparing to establish a permanent residence up there. And if you paid enough, even a civilian could go up there for a week or two.

Modern technology was truly wonderful, it was only unfortunate so many abused it for their own twisted gains.

But what stopped these powerful Cultivators from traveling to space? He said Qi become unstable. Like, hello? Qi was always unstable. Only Base Qi didn’t decay, but that one was too weak for the task of sustaining life.

Maybe there was some radiation in space? Elder Li did mention the sun… Maybe the atmosphere shielded the planet from some kind of radiation that destabilized Qi? Gerald guessed that to be the case, but he had no way of confirming it. It could just as easily be something else.

[Man, I really wish I had access to some modern technology…] He grumbled under his breath. He could maybe make it, but it would take a whole bunch of time and effort, and for what? Even if he knew why the Qi became unstable, it would change nothing. It wasn’t like he could just fly to the moon even if it was stable. He was still too weak.

[Oh, right… Elder Li...]

“Hmm?”

[I already scoured the library, but I couldn’t find a way to open a pocket of space…]

“Open a pocket of space? What for?”

Gerald took out one of his storage pouches that was in a bad state. [I’m worried one of these things will break and I’ll lose access to my stuff.] Which was not technically a lie. He was worried about it, but not as worried as not getting access to his broken storage ring.

“Those? But they should just spill out everything if they are destroyed, right? I think that’s how they work. Haven’t used them in a while though.

[Ah? Really? But, what if they don’t? What if it malfunctions? Is there a way to open the pocket of space inside?]

“Eh…” Elder Li stroked his beard, thinking. It was clear that Gerald wasn’t telling him the full story, but he kind of… didn’t care. It was a really simple thing he was asking about anyway, so why not lend him a hand a bit?

“There is this crude way…” Elder Li said, coming to a decision. “Really dangerous too, since it messes with the structure of space, but I guess it could work… Let me think.”

He crossed his arms behind his back and began pacing around while his eyes unfocused and he seemingly lost himself in thought.

Gerald patiently, and excitedly, waited for him.

“Ah, I think I got it!” Elder Li moved his hands and bright glyphs formed around him, appearing much less refined than those he used in place of a telescope. They were like giant spikes or a massive opened maw that tried to bite through the fabric of reality.

The air in the middle shimmered and the light bent weirdly as the space beneath it was disturbed. A thin black crack formed, about a meter long and a tenth that wide, before slamming back shut with a violent thunderclap.

“Well, there you go. That should work. If you wish to tear open secret hiding places or pockets of space, this is it. But be careful, as you can see, the thing is unstable. Space doesn’t like to be messed around with.”

[Awesome! Please, Master, teach me!] Gerald loudly proclaimed and bowed with cupped fists.

“Come on, none of that nonsense. Just call me Elder Li and I’ll teach you.”

[Please, Elder Li!] Gerald bowed again.

Elder Li stroked his beard and smiled. His new pupil was finally asking for his guidance and he was more than happy to oblige. He created two simple glyphs around his palms and prepared to teach.

“Alright now, pay attention!”