The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

I followed behind Elder Tian Feng, as we walked out of the chamber he’d been in. It took me a little while to realize where I was, since I had only really arrived here once before.

“We’re in the royal palace?” I asked, surprised that this was where I’d arrived out of all the other places.

“Indeed. Things have been changing over here. But more importantly, the thing you must do, the thing you must obtain, really, is here,” Elder Tian Feng said.

I followed behind him as we began to walk down stairs. The usual ornate displays quickly began to fade as the palace walls soon became unpolished stone that looked like it had been created nearly a thousand years ago. The further we went, the thicker the Qi in the air got, and the darker the world around me got. Which also let me know that I barely needed any light to see now, just another one of those things that had been caused by my rapid surge in power and recent brush with divinity that I still wasn’t so used to.

The stairs continued to descend further and further, the terrain becoming older and more rugged and the Qi becoming more and more dense. It was so much that I found it surprising that this place wasn’t teeming with Qi crystals, or that more of it hadn’t just leaked through.

After nearly fifteen minutes of walking, the stairs finally ended. This deep into the earth I could barely feel the bones of the world below me, deep dark things with massive pools of miasma lurking underneath. And yet, this place was anything but, filled with the most potent Qi I’d ever felt anywhere.

Belatedly, I noticed how much it was, and that this amount of Qi was not necessarily a good thing as it’d be bearing down on other people. I glanced towards Elder Tian Feng and noticed the elder starting to show signs that even he was finding it too much to be here.

My curiosity only grew, as we walked into an open segment with the roof far above our heads, and then, at the end of the chamber was a large gate.

If a gateway could impose itself and have an aura, then this one certainly did. The gate was massive, as if it was built for giants. Roughly ten times as tall as I was, the entire thing was built of stone and had carvings marked into it. A circular engraving was set within it, four divine beasts carved in symbols around the symbol of the Azure Jade empire.

Elder Tian Feng walked forward and pressed a metallic object he summoned in his hands to the gate, and I felt a truly ancient power pulse through the gates. The giant stone gates opened with a deep shudder, as if a giant beast was taking a breath after being awoken from its centuries long sleep. Dust rose from the movement, as a strong and cold gust of air poured out, carrying with it a powerful pulse of heavenly Qi from within.

Elder Tian Feng stood at the gates as I walked next to him.

“This is the birthplace of the empire,” he said, glancing at me. “Further in from here, you’ll have to go alone, and so, I’d like to tell you all I know of this place before you head in there.”

I nodded, as the Elder Turned towards the chamber in front of him.

“You are aware of the beginning of this empire, are you not?” Tian Feng asked.

“I have some ideas,” I replied.

“The heavens have picked their side and the empire was the one to receive their blessing. But it wasn’t the only one. The Azure-Jade empire is not the first of it’s kind. There have been others, those that came before it. The one before this one was known as the Eternal Phoenix empire, born from the flames of the Vermilion Bird. There were others still, most built around the five great families or their ancestors, and one of the four divine beasts and the blessings achieved from them. But not all of them. Some of them were created by others, those not of the five families. The Azure Jade empire, the latest one is really the successor to a far long history that has been running for thousands of years, since the very heavens and earth diverged from one another,” Elder Tian Feng said, glancing at me.

I listened with rapt attention. I knew of some details, and I knew that the divergence had taken in what was known as the ancient era when powerful spirits had just roamed the lands, but I hadn’t been aware of just how long this history had gone. Texts on the previous empires were sparse.

“There have also been demonic empires,” Elder Tian Feng said, surprising me.

“Really? How did… how did anybody survive?” I asked.

“We don’t know. The birth of this empire was turbulent, like the birth of any empire is, but many of these texts and history has simply been lost to time. There had been a war, a great one, like there is every time empires change, and that war had lost almost all that had existed from the previous empire,” the Elder said, looking in front of us.

“It is the great cycle of the world. Empire stand, prosperity begins, the people flourish, advancements are made, and then slowly, the rot from within starts to spread, the demons start to grow strong, the waves become more powerful till the empire crumbles, and then a new one is born out of those ruins, and the cycle is begins anew,” Elder Tian Feng said.

I listened to that, trying to picture it. And a big mystery of the world became resolved to me in this moment.

It wasn’t just that the heavens were hold back knowledge from spreading. They clearly had rules in place, rules that they had to uphold to some extent, but it was also clear that it was this cycle of creation and destruction at the hand of demons that kept the world stuck in place, unable to move ahead.

I realized, to a degree of shock, that from the very first day since I’d set my path, I’d been set against this cycle. I’d been set against this endless senseless war and the divide that plagued the world, even though I didn’t know any of it at the time, looking back, it almost seems inevitable that I’d arrive to this place one way or another if I did not die.

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The realization shocked me, and the world pulsed around me, a flash of Qi flowing around my body to let me know that I’d touched upon something just now.

Elder Tian Feng looked at me and smiled. “And so you see the hand of fate. It is not the predetermined thing we think of it as, but rather the nudges that guide the path within this seemingly infinite and ever changing web of reality.”

I nodded, not truly grasping the weight of any of that. But if this was my fate because of my nature and the path I had chosen… I glanced towards Elder Tian Feng.

“Had you known?” I asked him.

“Of course not,” he replied, snorting as if such a ridiculous thing might even be possible. “I had a premonition about certain things and I could sense the hand of fate a little better than most, but that is all. My interferences… they were not intention, merely another nudge under the guiding hand of the forces that brought you here,” he said, and I paused.

The forces that brought me here. I had never truly addressed that part had I? I had simply accepted it as my reality and situation, but something had definitely brought me here. And it wasn’t just me who had been brought.

“The reason why the emperor had no children and succession method was because of what resides in there. In a world of immortals, there can be no succession, unless your children are also immortal, you cannot simply let a prince take over. You are the emperor and chances are, will likely outlive any children they have. That is why the process of succession is not so simple and not tied up in children. And as a matter of fact, the emperor did have children. They were taken care by the clan members of the emperor’s family and were not aware of their true identities. It made things… simpler.”

“Inside there is the mantle which each emperor must obtain. No matter what power or nature of divinity you have, that mantle of the heavens is the one you must bear on your shoulders to be truly called emperor. It is the tying bond that binds you to the empire. But the heavens will test you on that as well, test your mettle, your strength, your path, and the conviction of your will. So think carefully before you step inside. You will bear a mantle only a few have borne in history, all who’ve ushered in great change into the world. And it is not one that is held lightly. There will be other paths, other methods to achieve things, but if you do this, there will be no coming back. Even if this war ends, you will not be able to give up the responsibility that you have taken on.

The empire you will uphold… is likely going to be different, but chances are, that many things will not be fundamentally other. So, bearing that mantle may mean giving up the ability to have children, or to acknowledge them as yours. That is a price many do not get to consider, and it is something you would have to think over. Taking that mantle means you will be tied to this empire till the end, no matter what, and it would mean that you would have to bear the burden of the legacy that the prior emperor has left you behind. If you think all of that is a price you are willing to bear, if you still think that this is the right path for you then head inside and seek the heaven’s mandate,” Elder Tian Feng said.

I considered the elder’s words. I’d never even thought about children, or having any. I’d never got to think that far ahead. But if that was truly the world I’d have to live in… it gave me pause for a brief moment. Then I thought back, and thought of my current life.

I hadn’t quite said it like so… but I did have a family here. Not one by blood, but by choosing. I had a grandfather in the Old Man, a grandmother in Granny Lang. I had brothers in Zhang and Su Lin, and I had a sort of sister in Yan Yun. I even had something akin to a daughter or a younger sister in Labby, and Twilight. And many other relationships that did not have a fixed label that I could give them, but were just as close and dear to me as any other.

Even if I could not have a more traditional family, that potential future was not worth the price of what I already had. I already had loved ones, I already had people dear to me and if this was the price to be paid to protect them, then I would pay it a hundred times over.

I stepped into the chamber, my resolution final and the world began to fade around me. The inside of the giant chamber was filled with pillars and murals and engravings and I realized they told a story, a story of an ancient time, from the birth of the heavens, and the will of the Qi, and the dispute of the divine beasts that had led to the state of world as it was.

The fracturing of the cycle and the formation of the empires.

And as I walked, I found myself taking in all of those murals, the pulse of heavenly Qi surging all around me and filling me in this place.

This place felt sacred in a way that I felt in my soul, and each step I took, I felt a reverence rising within me at this ancient place. I could feel it’s age, feel the depth of its power and the history it contained.

But that wasn’t why I was here, and so, I gave the place a bow, and then headed deeper still. The world seemed almost hazy around me, like I was stepping through a spirit world, reality being held tenuously in this space.

In front of me was a pedestal, and upon that pedestal sat a single scroll.

And yet the power oozing from it was no mistake. This entire place, all of it’s heavenly Qi and divine power came from that one object. The entire reality of this location was set by that scroll, and it was pushing back on me just from the sheer weight of its authority.

I walked forward, closer to the pedestal and then gently picked up the scroll.

It was sealed, the seal upon it marked with a single symbol.

Heaven.

I took a breath and then sent a pulse of Qi towards the scroll. The seal upon it cracked open with a flush of power as the scroll opened in front of me revealing its content.

There was nothing within, nothing that was written, no mandate, no guides, no rules, nothing. But there was one order, a single order set within the scroll itself as it lit up with light and the world began to shudder all around me.

Judgement.

The scroll was a mantle, the authority that I would wield granted by the heavens themselves, but to obtain it, I would need to pass its judgment.

A blast of heavenly Qi pulsed outwards and then shot towards the sky as the chamber around me began to twist, I felt a terrible power rising around the world as I felt the heavens themselves twisting all around me, reaching for me from above.

A pulse traveled across the empire, storm clouds brewing over the entire capital with rapid intensity as I gathered my resolve and prepared for what was to come.

The tribulation crackled, enough strength within it to tear this entire place down. I could tell that the world would take notice, there was no way it would not, but if the demons knew of this place, then they could not reach it, and that was for the best.

As the clouds gathered, I had a minute to prepare myself and I thought what I would do if I did die here. I’d accepted my role in things, but it did not mean I would make it, there was no guarantee here, despite everything, I was still mortal, even with the divinity of two divine beasts within me, I wasn’t above death. Even the emperor hadn’t been, and he had been caught off guard, pushed by the power of Yang Shen and then tricked, sometimes that was all it took.

If I truly did die here… I wanted some things to live. And so, I reached inside of myself, reached to the core of the Divine Tree and I created a seed, a single seed that would live on even if I died, and would carry on what I couldn’t.

I closed my eyes, finally fully prepared to face the heavens. The chamber around me changed as the storm clouds in the skies manifested in the huge chamber. The pillars shook with power as I sat on the ground, feet crossed, and began to cycle.

Then the heavens rumbled, as the first bolt of lightning struck down upon me.