The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

The sun rose over the seventh peak, marking the first day when I was the acting lord. I sat in the lord’s manor, a thousand thoughts racing in my mind as I worked hard to reign my emotions in and concentrate.

Chi pulsed in my core, swirling around my body and outwards into the world around me as I focused inwards on my spirit, reaching into the piece of the inner world I had formed within me. With a little focus I sank inwards, now standing underneath a giant tree in a valley of grass with a brilliant sky above me.

I looked around myself, and saw flowers blooming and little creatures flying all around me. It was… spring. In the little valley that was my inner world, the seasons had been restored in part and I soaked into the sensation for a long moment, breathing in and letting some of the weight on my back slide off for just a moment of reprieve before I focused.

The two forces of Qi and Gu swirled as the divine beasts appeared in front of me. Xuanwu and Qinglong looked down upon me and I looked up to meet their eyes.

For a moment, silence remained as I simply stood there, feeling their presence.

“So… you guys had time to catch up a bit, I assume?” I asked, looking at the two divine beasts.

“We did.” Xuanwu replied.

“The demon child advances. This war will not be won if you cannot defeat him,” Qinglong added.

“Yeah, in regards to that. I feel like it’d help a little if I could get some help with that. I have both your powers to draw from now, but Yang Shen has had two Divine Beasts for some time now. Not only is he more powerful than me on his own, but he also has two divine beasts and is more experienced with using their power and with combat in general. I feel like it’s a bit of an ask to just ask me to beat him,” I said, being honest with the divine beasts. I’d been thinking about it for some time, but for some reason, there was an expectation that I’d have to be the one to beat Yang Shen. I had two divine beasts so I got why, but even then… there were Divinities around, and I had weapons… I just didn’t see how I’d win against Yang Shen by myself. Even in disguise, he’d managed to hold back a rampaging Xuanwu that had been using my body, and that was without using any of the Divine Beast’s powers.

“It is true that you cannot compare to that boy. He is older, stronger, far more experienced, and will also be able to draw upon the power of Zhuque and Baihu. Those two have always been the more destructive out of us. Baihu is metal, and Zhuque is flames, and especially those flames are what Yang Shen excels in. While the metal gives him a body that is sturdy and reinforces him powerfully. It is a potent mixture.”

“Great. Sounds like even you don’t think I can win then,” I said, wanting to throw my hands up in the air.

“Impatient child, listen. Xuanwu has spoken of his strengths, but not of yours yet,” Qinglong said, and I dipped my head in apology. I had let my frustration get the better of me.

“He is more powerful than you in all regards, but he does not have what you do. You hold the ability to mold two halves of a broken cycle. He forces Zhuque and Baihu but the Divine Beasts, captured as they may be, are not powerful. He has to fight them, push them, just to use their power. Why do you think he does not use them more often to simply plow through armies and head to the capital? With their might, nothing would be able to stop him, not even us,” Xuanwu said, and my eyes widened in surprise.

“He can’t… because the Divine Beasts are resisting him?” I asked, looking up.

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“They’re our brothers. They may have lost, but they will never give in, not to the end, not to filth like that,” Qinglong said, lightning crackling around the Azure Dragon.

“They are, and it is why Yang Shen’s power is limited. It is why he has to use so many tricks, rely on his Deathless, use fear and intimidation. There is no doubt that he is powerful, but he does not have what you have. You have Harmony, you have our strength, in all forms and with our complete will. You also carry the legacy of what Qillin had left behind. The seed to restore the world, the cycle of life and death. Such things are yours to claim and you hold authority over them. Do not underestimate that, child,” Xuanwu said.

“But this does not mean you can win, either. The reality that he is still far stronger than you remains unchanged, and as such, you must grow quickly and learn how to use our powers correctly,” Qinglong said.

I nodded. “I’m aware of that… but it’s not like I can just do some quests and suddenly I’m at the next level. I’m not sure what direction I’m supposed to head towards the next stage, or how to even begin progressing my path.”

“We cannot answer that,” Xuanwu said.

“The answer to your path can only be found by you. Such is the nature of cultivation.” Qinglong added.

I sighed. Great. Guess I was back at square one then.

“But…” Xuanwu interrupted me before I could complain about their helpfulness. “For the tasks at hand, you simply need to attain harmony and practice holding it. Reach for that state and exist in it, become one with it, and that will be sufficient practice as well.”

Alright. That was something.

I sat down on the grass within my spirit and crossed my legs, focusing. And then, once more, I reached for the two divine beasts, drawing upon the harmony of their union.

The two divine beasts complied, as they began to flow into me. Qi and Gu became one, spring and winter joining together as the cycle of life and death was conjoined, and I felt the power inside of me expanding, rippling, reaching outwards and for the world beyond me.

I held it there like that, letting it exist in that precipice. True harmony resonated around me, the two divine beast’s powers flowing through me in a torrent and I controlled their strengths.

If I had to put it in words, it was a little like trying to juggle two mountains. Which was to say, really really hard.

Trying to control the divine beasts and their authority felt like trying to push against a wall, while reigning in the state of Harmony so that I was at its precipice and simply holding it was a task that strained my will in a way I hadn’t even thought possible.

But I held on, retaining it. And the powers in my spirit began to resonate, and the world around me began to respond.

I did not realize it when my consciousness began to sink into the world around me. I became one with the chamber around me, then the wider manor around it, and soon, I was covering all of the seventh peak with my consciousness, one with all of it, watching over it, not from a place of awareness but beyond it, with a sort of all seeing gaze that was impossible to describe in words.

But that was not the end. My senses continued to expand, reaching outwards to the forests beyond, the spirit beasts, Taizhou, all the other villages, the people within them, and then even beyond still.

The world expanded around me. Harmony rang in my spirit.

And then I felt something, stirring underneath the earth, rumbling and shivering in the distance.

Dark figures that lurked within the darkness, heading this way.

My focus shattered as I opened my eyes, Harmony escaping me. I jumped to my feet, returning to my own body. I slid the window, jumping out as I took to the skies, quickly heading towards a familiar figure there.

Zhang regarded me, as I flew next to him.

“Brother Jie, what’s wrong?” He asked me, as I looked around the seventh peak.

“Have you noticed anything strange?” I asked.

“Nothing in particular. A few smaller demonic beasts tried to sneak in through the walls, but those were taken care of. Is something the matter?” Zhang asked, but I did not reply to him, simply scanning the horizons.

Chi went to my eyes and my vision expanded, zooming, almost as if my eyes had left my body as I moved through the world, seeing further and further into the distance, and there, in the distance beyond the villages, I saw them.

The demons.