The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

Something was wrong. I could feel it as a deep certainty down in my very bones. Something was very very wrong and I’d not been able to shake the feeling ever since the connection to the fourth peak had been stopped. The jade slips had cracked and stopped working all of a sudden, which was concerning enough as it is, but then something had changed with the Divine Tree itself.

I’d felt it more than seen it, the vast presence that had flared for but a moment over the entire world, and I’d found myself unable to understand just what I was seeing but the cycle itself had shifted, I’d felt a piece of it changing, and I did not understand what it meant.

And so now I paced in my own chamber to hear some news, anything, to explain just what was happening.

Mercifully, I did not have to wait forever as I sensed Qiao Ying heading my way. I did not way, opening the door as the man looked at me in surprise.

“Did you hear anything?” I asked the man in a rush.

Qiao Ying recovered quickly, and bowed. “The Divinities have set up a scrying formation to talk with you. I’ve made the arrangements.”

I did not waste any time, quickly following Qiao Ying as I walked into the chamber with the scrying formation. The pool of water sat in the midst of a large but shallow bowl. The formation had been setup in hasty, even I could see that, so the burden of maintaining it would be on the other side, still, I imagine the Divinities would not lack in people capable enough to do so.

As I stepped inside, Qiao Ying bowed and remained outside the door. A pulse of Qi travelled across the chamber as the water rose up into the air and I found tree figures standing in front of me. I gave a small bow to the Divinities, and then waited for them to speak.

“We’ve heard of your accomplishment in bringing back the Azure Dragon. We would’ve spoken of it earlier, but as you know, things have been a little busy with the war. We’ve been trying to track Yang Shen’s movement but the demon has somehow been managing to escape all our attempts to locate him,” the Shie matriarch said.

I nodded, feeling like there was more to be said on the topic but I decided not to comment.

“I don’t like subterfuge and so on so I’ll cut straight to the core of the matter of why we’ve reached out in such a manner. We need you to get back to the capital,” the Yue patriarch said, I could vaguely smell the ocean behind him from the scrying mark, which I found strange.

“Why?” I asked, surprised by the statement.

“Because losing you would mean the end of this war. And the demons have began deploying Divinities of their own. We can’t take the risk. None of us can. We’re all returning to the capital and we’ll make our hold there,” the Yue patriarch said.

My eyes widened in surprise, as a few things clicked together, and I took a long moment to cover everything. The demons had Divinities, which meant we’d have to contest with those. And if the presence I’d felt and the events of the fourth peak lined up with this… I clenched my fist, holding back a pulse of anger.

“It has been difficult to get information from the fourth peak but the Divinity had made its appearence here. By all means the fourth peak should’ve fallen then and there. A divinity is not somebody that you can stop so simply, but your lord, Lord Zhou, was seemingly blessed by the heavens. Accounts are unclear but people had seen a tribulation form, and the Lord and the Demon had fought before both of them had risen to the sky and vanished in a bright flash of light,” the Yue patriarch continued. “It may be that Lord Zhou had sacrificed himself to take out the demonic divinity.”

I listened to their words, but did not fully register them. I should’ve been feeling pain, hurt, loss, so much more, and yet a part of me just did not believe what they were saying. I’d felt that change, felt the… the presence shift and though it was blurry, I could also feel Lord Zhou. He was there, as if hidden outside my senses, but I could feel his presence there, connected to me still.

I let out a deep breath, taking all of that in.

The Huo patriarch continued as I settled my thoughts. “From what we understand, there are three other divinities that still remain. And then there is Yang Shen himself. It is all but inevitable for one of the seven peaks to fall with Divinities on the other side. They could strike any one of them, or combine their strengths to repeat another strike on the fourth peak and there would be little we would be able to do. Doing that would mean certain loss, and a slow and terrible one.”

“Which is why, we think it will be best to reshape the dynamics of the battle. The fourth peak has all but fallen, and so, we’re not going to hold onto a front we cannot truly hold. The lords will defend their peaks, the fourth lord will retreat and we’ll gather our forces around Azure City and let the demons find a way to the capital on our terms, and face them in battle there,” the Shie Matriarch finished.

I simply listened quietly, thinking over everything. I could see the logic, I had a lot of questions and a lot of doubts but I was not experienced in warfare and I was not a strategist, so I did not delve too deeply in those questions.

“How will I get to the capital? It will take time and if the goal is to minimize risk, then a journey will only make me more vulnerable on the way there.”

The Divinities seemed surprised at that, looking at each other.

“What?” I asked, finding my patience running a little thin.

“We’d anticipated you to resist more,” the Shie matriarch said at last.

“Given your temperament so far, we thought we’d have to get most of your friends and such here as well,” the Huo patriarch added as well.

I wanted to be annoyed at that, but in truth that was just my emotions getting the better of me. Their assessment was not wrong. Normally I’d be quite opposed, especially if it really was so dangerous with the demonic Divinities running about. But I knew better than that.

“I’m a target. Being here actively makes things more dangerous for the people here. Things are going to be in chaos and with how deep in the midst of everything I am I cannot just pretend to not be influenced or affected, but that’s simply how things are and I have accepted the role that I have to play here. In truth I don’t want to go, and I really don’t want to have to deal with this war either, but neither are things that were my choice and you don’t always get a choice in life. My friends are being attacked. The people who rely on me are being attacked. And so I need to act in a way that thinks of their best interests and keeps that in mind,” I said to the divinities.

There was a pause as the three of them all seemed to draw their own conclusions.

The Shie Matriarch smiled. “You’ve grown since we last talked.”

A bitter smile crossed my face at that. “I’ve had to. I wasn’t given a choice.”

Somehow, to my surprise, I saw a sympathetic expression on her face. As if she understood, as if she knew just what I had to sacrifice for all of this.

“The loss of innocence is a painful experience, but a necessary one. We all have to go through it some day,” the Shie matriarch said.

“I really hope Labby doesn’t have to,” I said quietly to myself. “The strength of will comes at a price, and though it is necessary and I find myself taking on the burden… it is not easy. It never got easier. I just… got better at bearing the weight of it all,” I said, finding myself far closer to the truth than I’d anticipated I’d ever go in front of them.

“It is good that you have become wiser. The world is in an uncertain place right now, and for better or for worse, you have been chosen as the one to lead. A leader needs wisdom, and conviction. You’ve demonstrated your wisdom, now, you will have to demonstrate your conviction,” the Huo patriarch said.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I looked, feeling a little surprised. “Convinction in what manner?”

“We’re going to raise a ward around the capital to defend Azure city once all of us have moved in. The method of transportation will bring you in immediately, though it is quite costly to do so and we can’t do it too often, but it is the safest route and necessary in this scenario,” the man said.

“Teleportation?” I asked, schocked that something like that existed.

“Not quite, but close. There are ancient artifacts from before the empire that herald secrets we do not understand, one of them is the one we will be using to transport you,” the Huo patriarch said.

“Alright, but what about this ward? Why do that?” I asked.

“We cannot defend the seven peaks, and the strength of the heavens are fading with each day, we cannot maintain this war and so we’d have to focus on the capital and hope the other seven peaks can defend themselves in the time being,” the Shie Matriarch said.

I stared in surprise. “You’re abandoning them.”

None of them said a word.

“How could you?” I asked, finding myself much closer to blinding fury than I’d realized.

“This is war, boy. And circumstances are quite dire. If we lose the capital, or if we lose you, we lose everything. The lords know that. Your lord knew that. That is why he gave his life to stop the demon Divinity. That is what this has all been about. Without you, we do not have any good way to stop that demon, not when he has three other Divinities to throw at us. We have to do it this way to have any chance at all. The power of the heavens are fading, and that too, rapidly. We can all feel it. Everyone can feel it. Defending the capital will let us concentrate that strength, and make sure we can hold onto it. And keep you safe,” the Huo patriarch said.

I tried to reason myself into it, tried to think of it in a different light. This place would be fine. My influence and with everything else, they’d be able to hold on. With me in the capital, there was nothing of significance that could be gained by attacking the seventh peak. Except to make me angrier, but even with that, the weapons I’d left behind, the deferences available to me and everything… but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.

I shook my head. “No, no I can’t do that. Don’t try to convince me, you won’t. I won’t abandon them and just hope that the demons do not attack any of the other peaks. These are demons. Do you think they will simply walk past if they saw that they could get away with it? No, this will ruin the empire, ruin the majority of it. Even if most people retreat into the Azure city, there’s only so much time and space to do that, and only so many people that can be kept safe like this. No, this is not the the answer. There has to be a better way,” I said, looking at the Divinities.

They stared me down, but I kept my gaze firm. I was not going to buckle on this, I wasn’t leaving people to die. That was the entire reason why I was fighting, and why I was doing any of this in the first place. If most of the empire was simply lost… what would be the point? To preserve all the cultivators, the wealth, the capital, the symbols?

“Mortals may mean little to you, but they’re not as expendable to me. Just because the heavens decided to bless some and not others doesn’t make them inferior in my eyes. To protect all of those people is why I’m fighting, and if those people are simply left on the goodwill of demons then I may as well walk up to Yang Shen now and surrender everything and beg for his mercy,” I said and saw a visible wave of panic flash across their places for a brief moment.

And I realized why. I’d meant what I’d said. I really would just walk up to Yang Shen if the alternative was simply to let so many people die.

I stared the divinities down, and then, saw the Shie matriarch sigh. The water fluctuated around the scrying pool as a fourth and familiar figure appeared in front of me.

“It is as you had said. The boy did not budge,” the Shie matriarch said, almost as if admitting defeat.

The Yue patriarch, for some reason, seemed to be smiling.

I simply stared, watching Elder Tian Feng standing there. I gave the man a light bow, greeting him. “What’s going on?” I asked.

The Elder looked at me, and then to the other divinities. “There is another option Lu Jie, but it is one that puts you at risk, and why this was the first alternative that was presented to you. You should think carefully—“

“—I’ll do it.” I said, not waiting an instant.

The man paused, and then gave me a nod. “I had assumed you would say something like that. But keep in mind that it is not just your life that is at stake. If you die, someone else will have to hold the Divine Beasts. That is… not an easy task. To hold a Divine Beast, you need to have the spirit strength to hold their power within you. Or if not that, then you need to be heavily in tune with their nature of power. You have both, and it is why you are able to achieve what you do, but even you must know that your vessel is insufficient to keep such power at bay. You must have felt it already,” the man said.

I paused. I had felt that before. A little like trying to cram an ocean into a bucket, it felt like I would explode from the insight if I ever looked too deep.

“The Divine Beasts, no doubt, are keeping most of it at bay. They will have to be working hard to not pressure your spirit too much, and the time you’ve had one divine beast within you means your spirit has slowly but surely grown larger and accustomed to holding such a presence. You do not even realize how special this has made you. People do not simply shrug off the aura of three divinities, my boy. Especially not children who are not even fully grown into their powers,” Elder Tian Feng said, and I paused, realizing the Divinities had not just been insisting but actively pushing down with their auras on me.

I’d just subconsciously resisted it, and not noticed the weight of it. Normally when in the presence of someone powerful, I’d feel it, like a mountain sitting on my shoulders, making me submit, but… this almost felt light. Against the weight of two divine beasts… I felt like my spirit was simply heavier than theirs. Like there was this intangible mass inside of me that determined the weight of my own aura and spirit and it was simply larger than the Divinities.

Elder Tian Feng smiled. “There are many such things you do not know, and that is fine. Not all things have to be named, and set within known standards and convictions. Your lack of knowledge is partly why you’re capable of performing feats of miracles without ever batting an eye. The detachment from the world of cultivation that you’ve maintained has let you do things from a perspective few others can match and this allows you to achieve breakthroughs hardly anyone else could hope to match. But, it also means you don’t understand your own strengths and limits, and the task in front of you… it is not an easy one. And there is a very real chance that you may not survive,” Elder Tian Feng said.

I wanted to simply jump in and say that I’d do it again but I paused and gave the question serious consideration out of respect to Elder Tian Feng. What would happen if I did die? The battle against Yang Shen would prove to be much more difficult for one. Qinglong and Xuanwu would have to find a new vessel to bestow their divine powers onto.

And yet… I did not find that too dire. I had already left almost everything I knew in the five texts I’d written. I would not be able to guide people through those insights and knowledge but it was there to be made use of. Qiao Ying was highly capable and was running the sect and so many other things for me already, and while I knew Labby would be heartbroken and my friends would be deeply saddened, they would not be lost without me.

Neither would the cycle. It would be harder, for sure, it would take a lot more work, and the demons would have a real chance of just ending it all and making things way way worse, but it’d not be the end.

I could almost see it… the people, together, as one, gathering and helping each other. Mortals and cultivators alike, using the knowledge I’d left, using the resources and path I’d shown and walking on it, with or without me.

If a single vessel cannot be found then they’d find multiple. If that cannot be done then the divine beasts can simply help directly, instead of via proxy. But I believed in the human spirit, in our ability to find a way out of difficult times, and somehow, the spark that I’d envisioned lighting, the spark of curiosity, of development, of bringing true change to the world. That spark had turned into a brilliant and blazing inferno that was only going to spread faster and faster.

I opened my eyes, and I almost felt a shift in my core, as if I’d passed some kind of bottleneck I hadn’t known of, and I gave the elder a nod.

“I’ll do it.”

He looked at me, gave me a nod, and then glanced at the other Divinities.

“Very well,” the Shie matriarch said, raising her hand.

“Prepare for the artifact to work. You will feel a little strange, but don’t resist,” she said and I prepared myself.

I felt the Qi gathering… a twisted, strange thing that was a mix of black and blue. It pulsed out of the scrying formation and bound around me, and I could see it, almost as a polar twin to Zhang’s gravity Chi… but a greater representation of such, even if not fully balanced.

But before I could analyze things any further, the strange Qi enveloped all around and I found my stomach lurch as I felt myself being flung at speeds I could not even begin to describe.

The world swirled around me things moved really fast for a second and then slowed down immediately and I collapsed on the ground, doing my best to hold myself back from hurling onto the floor.

After a few deep breaths, I finally looked up and saw Elder Tian Feng looking down at me, Xian Yue standing next to him with a complicated expression I couldn’t quite read.

The elder extended a hand to me, and I took it, standing back up on my feet.

“Welcome back to Azure City, Lu Jie,” the Elder said, and then turned. “Follow me. You have something to see in here.”