86 Incandescence

The rhythmic beating of a pair of hammers caused Cha Ming's bones to shake with every blow. Every strike caused large chunks of ore to crumble from the wall into large carts that were parked near him.

He had been hammering away for the past five days, a new personal record. His endurance grew with every passing day, but he also felt an external strength seeping into him. It was an ever-present energy that continuously refreshed his aching muscles and gave him sufficient energy to keep mining. It wasn't that he wanted to work; a very specific set of orders kept him working as long as he possibly could.

Thus far, Cha Ming had caused twenty-seven non-lethal fracture injuries to the bandits and had indirectly caused the death of seven others. He was able to accomplish this due to loopholes in the rules, contradictions between his well-being, production capacity, and the safety of the bandits. This had prompted Wei Chen to fetch a lawyer and contract specialist, who investigated the case data and patched any loopholes. After three repetitions of this grueling process, Cha Ming found himself unable to act directly or indirectly against the guards.

Now all he could do was work until his bones ached. But there was a silver lining to his current predicament. The incessant pounding and hard work had made him completely comfortable with his 1,080 jin of physical strength.

Like that's any use, Cha Ming thought. I can only continue mining until I encounter a stroke of luck and break free from this mental prison.

His hammering continued, and he took one slow step at a time, synchronizing his movements with the swinging weapons and splashing debris. Moving forward was difficult because his entire body was covered with pieces of gold-weighted clothing while he wore gold boots on his feet. After all, exerting one's full strength was very difficult without a sufficient counterweight. His suit enabled him to exert his full fist strength with every blow without a hint of recoil. While it increased the vibrations and the pain he felt, he couldn't question the efficiency of this method. In fact, it was very similar to what he did using his Mountain Stance or his Hard Staff Art.

Months passed this way, until he had spent a total of six months in the mine. His endurance grew with time, and eventually he was able to continue mining for ten days without rest. His good behavior and insane productivity made it so that his jailers no longer supervised him. They would only come to check up on him every hour and deliver meals, which he wolfed down in as short a time as humanly possible.

One day, he was pounding away and mining like he had been for the past week. No guards were around, only workers who rapidly removed the debris and spirit stones that he'd smashed away with his vicious hammer strikes.

Suddenly he heard a loud crack throughout his entire body. His mind shuddered, and he almost lost consciousness. The nearby miners were completely stunned when he paused his mining for a few breaths. It was the first "break" that they had seen this monstrously strong man take in months.

Cha Ming resumed mining shortly after, careful to conceal any signs of what had occurred. Fortunately, the miners beside him were all normal mortals, and they didn't recognize the sharp sound that come from Cha Ming.

The sound of him breaking through to the next level of qi condensation.

***

Wei Chen sighed with boredom as he reviewed the notes on the progress of the mining operation. They had only mined a third of the mine's total reserves. At least, that was the current estimate based on their exploration and calculations.

This worried the normally calm and calculating man. The movements of his bandit group had not gone unnoticed, and their absence even more so. It wouldn't be long until the leader came looking for them. If they were found with such a large amount of unreported wealth, the fate of Wei Chen and his group of loyal bandits would be sealed. As the weakest of the three vice leaders, it was difficult for him to compete for benefits.

Will I need to abandon part of the mine and flee with the profits?

In his greed, he quickly shoved this thought out of his head. Nothing could make him abandon a sliver of these generous profits. They were his ticket to absolute domination, and he wished for nothing more than to move unhindered in these lands. He wanted freedom from oppression and the ability to protect those he loved. Or what was left of them. He also wanted the ability to avenge those who had moved on.

This was why, despite his vast wealth, he kept pushing himself to perform increasingly atrocious acts. His bar was lowered further and further, and it wouldn't be long before he felt that killing for intimidation and devil sacrifices were completely acceptable practices. His present morals were willing to excuse the wanton murder of innocents with sufficient reason. What that sufficient reason was, only he knew.

Suddenly he felt a jolt on his forearm where his slave sealing marks were located. He quickly bared his arm and discovered that all the symbols were intact and functioning properly. Frowning, he looked suspiciously at Cha Ming's slave mark.

That man has been nothing but trouble. In fact, he's completely unusable as anything but a miner. Should I send someone to observe him again? Cha Ming had been obedient for months, but he sorely remembered the effort it had taken to completely tame him.

Eventually he gave way to his worries and sent out a message. He would no longer take chances with that unpredictable slave, and once the mining project was over, he would silence him. After all, he wasn't one of the villagers, he was just an outsider who had taken refuge there for some time.

The heavenly oath did not prevent the shrewd bandit leader from killing him once his usefulness had run out.

***

Cha Ming continued mining as he observed the changes occurring inside his dantian. The membrane surrounding his qi lakes had been breached, like a dam after a reservoir had exceeded its capacity. He looked on as the five qi lakes in his dantian, joined by five white and five black rivers, began growing into qi seas. A massive amount of qi suddenly rushed in from his surroundings, reducing many spirit stones he had mined to rubble.

How the hell am I going to hide this? Cha Ming thought worriedly.

Under the assistance of the surrounding spirit stones, it only took an incense time for his dantian to fill to the brim. His new qi seas were many times vaster than the original qi lakes, and it was obvious that this was an important watershed in the cultivation process. Regrettably, he still couldn't cultivate normally, but he was sure that the process of restoring his meridians would be much smoother from now on. That was, if he survived that long.

Still mining, he looked inward into his spiritual sea. It was white, just like when he had fought Guo Jia. But now, instead of seeing his chained, nearly transparent body, he saw that his body was glowing ever so slightly. He also discovered that a new piece of information had appeared in his mind: He had cultivated his soul into the Incandescence Realm. He also noticed that his soul was growing increasingly bright. He felt his soul pulling from a mysterious force in his surroundings to strengthen itself.

The glowing eventually reached a bottleneck, where it stopped briefly before pushing through to the next level. His soul continued its accelerated growth, until it glowed like a dim lightbulb. There it stopped once more before a popping sound signaled yet another breakthrough. His soul continued to grow stronger until the glowing resembled a bright lightbulb.

Crack.

A shattering sound ensued, and the glow from his soul became so bright he couldn't bear looking at it. His soul now glowed as bright as the sun. After a short while more, the growth of his soul halted.

The upper level of the Incandescence Realm. It was not the peak, but controlling his qi and spiritual force was much easier than it was before.

Upon closer examination, the glow gave his soul great strength. The slave sigil chaining his soul was now offering nothing more than a light resistance. It was like a garment that he could tear off at his leisure. He knew that as long as he willed it, the slave sigil would shatter, severing his connection with the other master sigils. He was now halfway to freedom.

Suddenly the sound of footsteps and weapons being drawn caused his perception to be drawn back to the outside world. He had received no orders to stop, so he resumed mining as quickly as possible. The guards tentatively approached him with spears, but he ignored them.

Soon a guard holding a master sigil approached him. "Halt!" the man said.

Cha Ming, who was mid-swing, instantly halted his motion in midair.

"Attention," the guard instructed.

Cha Ming instantly turned around, standing straight as a rod with his hammers crossed in front of him subserviently. After a subsequent command, he dropped the hammers and kept his hands firmly by his side.

"What happened here?" the guard asked.

Cha Ming kept a straight face that didn't betray his newfound freedom.

"Reporting to Master," Cha Ming replied docilely. "This slave has broken through to the seventh level of qi condensation due to the ambient spiritual force in the air. It was a natural breakthrough, but it caused this slave to pause for three breaths before this slave was able to continue mining." He said no more or less than was expected.

The guard turned pale when he heard this but quickly regained his composure and instructed Cha Ming. "We will be taking you to see the leader now. Submit yourself to the application of body-restraining and qi-restraining manacles."

Cha Ming did not put up any shred of resistance. As they put on the manacles, he became weak as a kitten while simultaneously controlling his soul force and suppressed his apparent soul cultivation base until it resembled half-step incandescent realm. Only those with a higher soul force than he had would be able to tell the difference. He was sure Wei Chen wasn't one of those people.

The journey out of the falls was uneventful, and soon Cha Ming found himself standing face to face with Wei Chen. They were alone in his private quarters. He waited patiently as Wei Chen walked around him and observed him. He didn't react when the man reached out with the great-master sigil's powers, checking the link between them. He also didn't react when Wei Chen uncomfortably walked up to him and gently touched the mark on his forehead.

Walking behind him, Wei Chen asked, "What happened?"

"Please clarify, Great Master," Cha Ming replied dutifully.

"Did you break through to the seventh level of qi condensation?" Wei Chen asked.

"This slave broke through to the seventh level of qi condensation."

"Did your body break through?" Wei Chen pressed.

"It did not," Cha Ming replied.

"Then why did you pause for three breaths after breaking through?" Wei Chen asked.

"The immediate breakthrough caused this slave's body to lose all energy before it was finally stabilized by external heaven and earth qi," Cha Ming answered.

"Why would your body enter a state of energy deprivation?" Wei Chen asked. "Usually, there is sufficient qi throughout the whole body to stop an interim interruption. Breakthroughs mid-combat are not unheard of."

This was a tricky question. Truthfully, it had occurred because of his shock at his newfound freedom. Thankfully, Cha Ming had anticipated this question and come up with a conceivable answer. "This slave's body is crippled. This slave's non-core meridians and qi pathways are broken and barren, causing there to be a qi deficiency in this slave's body as a whole. Therefore, this slave's body's qi was overdrawn. Had it been mid-combat, this slave would have died."

Wei Chen looked pensive as he walked out from behind Cha Ming. Pensive, but doubtful. As Wei Chen walked behind him once more, he sensed a fist approaching his vitals. He avoided the fist ever so slightly but didn't retaliate.

"Why did you dodge?" Wei Chen growled.

"Master has ordered that this slave preserve his body's functions unless directly ordered by a master or great master to do so," Cha Ming replied calmly.

"Was my fist approaching you not a direct order?" Wei Chen asked.

"No, it was not," Cha Ming replied.

This was obviously a trick question and a trick action. Should Cha Ming have taken the fist on purpose, he would have been obeying an implicit order but not his explicit orders. Wei Chen was simply a cunning old fox, and it was no wonder that he had become a vice leader of this bandit group.

"Allow me to attack you," Wei Chen said.

Before Cha Ming could reply, a rapid boot strike approached the side of his head. It was a near-lethal blow, one that he could just barely react to in time if he so chose. Of course, he did nothing of the sort. He was knocked down to the ground with a severe concussion, and his strong constitution barely stopped him from passing out or throwing up. He stayed there, not getting up until ordered.

"Get up!" the leader yelled.

Cha Ming attempted to stand up but was prevented by a boot. While his cultivation was no longer restricted, the leader had reinforced himself with qi, making it impossible to resist. Still, Cha Ming didn't give up and attempted to squirm out of the way of the foot. He struggled for an incense time and was beaten bloody in the process.

Finally, Wei Chen allowed him to stand up. As he did so, Wei Chen handed him a short sword. It was a third-grade spirit sword.

"Cut your arm off with this sword," Wei Chen growled.

What a vicious man.

Cha Ming quickly grabbed the sword and hacked into his arm. A splash of blood sprayed onto himself and the leader, but he didn't stop after just hitting bone. He struck it over and over again, and cracks started to form on his bone. The strength of his body caused cracks to appear on the spirit sword as well. Fortunately, Cha Ming's soul was extremely strong, and he could withstand the pain. In fact, it had been strong enough at half-step incandescence, so regardless, he did not have to fake any screams. Cha Ming figured this was yet another ploy to get him to commit a mistake.

"Stop!" Wei Chen yelled just as Cha Ming's arm bone was about to be severed in two.

Cha Ming halted the blade an inch from his arm, which was now a bloody mess. Without any kind of medicine, it would be two weeks before he could use this arm properly again. As he stood there in pain, Wei Chen walked out of the tent and came back with another two men, who immediately began to clean the floor and his arm.

"Take this pill and eat it," the leader said.

Cha Ming complied, and he felt a surge of vital energy transferring to his arm. It began knitting together the ravaged flesh and chipped bone. "Rest for six hours before continuing your work at maximum efficiency."

A half day passed by before Cha Ming was finally back into the full swing of things. This was, of course, the final test by the shrewd man. The medicinal efficiency could not fully heal his arm in six hours, so he could only start mining with a damaged arm. After some quick calculations, he adjusted the rate of mining between his arms, ensuring that he could heal adequately while mining at the maximum average rate. After twelve hours, his arm was fully healed, so he resumed his mining at peak efficiency.

Over the next two weeks, the guards became increasingly complacent and began leaving him alone again. In their absence, Cha Ming began doing two things. First, he began embezzling spirit stones, keeping them inside his Clear Sky World. Second, he began using his superior spiritual force to guide qi down his ruined pathways, destroying them and rebuilding them as time passed. It was much easier than before, and the pain was much easier to bear. It was a risky process, but he had to do it. Besides, he was sure that Wei Chen was untrained in spiritual detection abilities and would have trouble inspecting his meridians and qi pathways without outside help.

And so, Cha Ming bided his time and waited for an opportunity to escape. He could not train his body-transformation technique, and making another breakthrough in qi condensation was not an option.

However, he was sure his chance would come. It always did.