The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

I watched through a window from the Lord’s manor as the Lord left the seventh peak, alongside an entourage of carriages carrying weapons, supplies, and all sorts of things needed for the war front. The sun set in the distance, painting the skies red, and I felt a strange melancholy at the sight. Almost as if I was grieving the loss of how things had once been, and how they had become now.

As the carriages left the seventh peak city, I felt a weight settling onto my shoulders. Now, I was officially in charge of the seventh peak, and the weight of that responsibility began settling on me.

Not wanting to be weighed down by my emotions, I turned around and glanced behind me to acknowledge the presence that had just made its way into the chamber. Qiao Ying stood there, head bowed to me with scrolls in his hand as always. I nodded, glad to have something to do instead of just wallowing in my own feelings.

The first order of business was a report on how everything was going on.

“What’s it looking like?” I asked Qiao Ying, not needing to elaborate.

“Better than we had expected, but not good enough, sir,” Qiao Ying said frankly. That was part of what I liked about the man so much, his frankness and bluntness, he was not the type to sugar coat things. And that’s why I found myself holding back a sigh. That was the theme of this entire thing wasn’t it? Unprecedented achievements and progress and yet it was still not enough.

“Give me the report,” I said, and Qiao Ying straightened, nodding.

“The first order of business is in regards to weapon production. The blacksmiths are working as hard as they can but we’re at maximum capacity. They’re using everything they have and more, and actively recruiting and training anybody who’s free, but they have a shortage of actually skilled people who’d be able to guide them and do the necessary work that they simply can’t fill without more time. There is also a shortage of ores and the other peaks are in… well, they’re not in any condition to help us, so we are having to rely entirely on our own resources. The Qi vein around Taizhou and some of the other villages had some important ores such as Iron available which we were able to extract, but our capacity is running out. I’ve reached out to Yu Lan in the capital and she’s using your money to source and send us more metals, but even they have their hands tied.”

I frowned. There was not much that could be gone, these were all new tech and new techniques and the first few blacksmiths we’d trained were not that many, we couldn’t expect people to pick these things up so quickly, but even besides that, the ore issue was going to be a problem.

“Sir, there is one thing that does show promise,” Qiao Ying said.

“What is it?” I asked, looking at the man.

“The formation artists we’d recruited, who’d been helping Yin and such make some of the more… experimental and dangerous technologies, have been successfully able to make transcription jade script relays based on the telegraph technology as written in sir’s books, and we were able to send one to the Azure City with haste to test them. The range is phenomenal, allowing us simpler communication across the entire empire. It is not as good as a full scrying art or formation, but anybody can use these and a lot of them can be produced extremely rapidly. We’ve already sent them out across the empire and are starting to use them to communicate even across the seventh peak. Even the mortals in the militia who can’t read are being taught simple characters to be able to communicate. The more secretive information is being communicated in English to avoid any kind of enemy reconnaissance. This has allowed us to get in touch with some distant mining towns on the fifth peak which includes a group of miners and blacksmiths, and we’re working on getting them to head to the seventh peak quickly to help with the situation,” Qiao Ying said.

I nodded. The jade slips had always been one of the technologies the world had just had that I’d always found strange had not found more expanded use. I’d theorized the possibility of not just this but also potentially using tiny jade slips as Qi charged capacitors to create entire computers, but right now we didn’t have the kind of time or luxury to delve into that. Only things that could be done was stuff that gave us an advantage. I turned towards Qiao Ying again.

“What else is of note?” I asked.

“Sir, the sect members and the militia of mortals have been training hard and taking care of any small demons or demonic beasts that arrive as well. Morale is higher than ever, and we’re starting to see the news spread out, receiving a flood of refugees from distant towns and even other peaks as they flee danger. We’re able to utilize and put most of them to work, and they’ve been happy to contribute.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

We’d had a brief trouble with concerns about food running out but—“ Qiao Ying paused as he looked at me.

But me getting the Azure Dragon solved that. I nodded.

“We’ve been utilizing the spirit beasts to be able to accelerate and grow food even in this harsh winter, especially with Twilight’s help. We believe it may also be her influence that is causing more and more mortals to awaken to Chi and learning how to cultivate while they’re at it. Nearly all the higher militia members now possess Chi and have been actively using it to bolster their abilities. It’s even caused some of the older cultivators to start picking up the weapons and learning how to use them as well. So, things on that front are improving. The ranks are becoming more solidified, and the divide between cultivators and mortals is starting to fall rapidly as they fight side by side against a common foe. More and more often, many are seen in mixed groups, mingling together,” Qiao Ying said.

I nodded, glad. That had been one thing I’d wanted to induce and help promote if I could. I thought back to the history text books I’d read on war myself. Everyone knew of the world wars and the horrors they’d brought on, wars where millions of innocents had died. Those wars had changed the world forever. The rapid development of firearms, the rapid push of technology and funding as the entire world was wrapped in chaos. It had been a terrible time period, but one that had laid the foundation of the modern world as it had been. Warfare had changed rapidly and had continued to evolve afterwards, and we were going to see that here as well at an even more accelerated scale. Decades of changes will be made in weeks, and I was still having to push harder on that front to make those changes happen even faster to keep up with this war.

The only consolation I had in all this, was that we were not fighting for the gain of any politician. We were not fighting each other.

This was a war for survival. A war against our way of life, and there were no alternatives here. We had to fight, or we would die to the coming onslaught. I did not like to admit it, but that was what let me put off the burden of all the deaths that may come from this battle, of all the chaos… and of the mark all of this will leave.

Because if I did nothing… things would be far worse.

Perhaps this would come to be known as the world war here, or the foundation of a new era. I felt the pulse of the two Divine Beasts in my chest, and that thought only became more certain. Because of this, I needed to be more aware, more careful, think things through and use a delicate but firm hand while guiding all this. Our enemy was clever and I had to be clever as well.

My mind went back to the world wars, and I remembered one thing I’d talked to Qiao Ying about. A key piece of technology that had shaped that war almost entirely, and one that we did not have here yet.

“Qiao Ying, have there been any developments on the aircrafts?” I asked.

The man paused for a second, and then nodded. “Some prototypes that work have been developed, sir. None that can travel for particularly long, it is simply more efficient as things stand to have a cultivator take to the skies instead. But there are some simpler ones that have been created which can fly with up to three people on them. They are not all that safe yet… but they do work. It’s a work in progress, but I’m afraid it won’t be ready in time,” Qiao Ying said, bowing.

I felt a little crestfallen at that. Having an air advantage on the demons would be huge. As things stood, only powerful cultivators could take to the skies right now. Zhang’s ability to be airborne for a long period of time was critical to keeping the seventh Peak safe. If we could send everybody out there instead…

“Sir… if I may. Though the crafts are not ready… There have been some volunteers who have not heeded the warnings and have been able to build them. We cannot in good faith recommend they steer them. But they have done so despite our warnings. And, like your notes had mentioned… the crafts were able to successfully target and deploy void bombs from up in the skies onto the battlefield, even some larger ones,” Qiao Ying said.

I paused.

“What payload were they running?” I asked.

“The largest one was a three-fold void bomb, carrying five. But standard ones can carry five of the regular void bombs on them,” Qiao Ying said.

I thought, my mind racing. It was dangerous, and the people who’d be taking on the role… they’d have to know what they were getting into could cost them their life… but if we could use these. We’d have a powerful weapon against the deathless.

The weight of their lives was in my palms, and I found my heart sinking. A part of me wanted to cut off any emotions, to simply move these men like chess pieces in a battle… but I found myself unable to do so. I should not. The weight of their lives had worth. And it’d be my responsibility to make sure to carry that weight.

With that thought in mind, I looked at Qiao Ying. “How many of them can we make?”

The man paused, and thought for a moment before replying. “Enough, sir.”

I nodded. And in just this moment, the world around me changed forever.