135 Tooth and Nail

Cha Ming was excited, a stark contrast to his stressed and fatigued demeanor less than an hour ago, rushing back after hearing Jun Xiezi's words. The sigils were like pieces of granite. They couldn't be forced together however he wanted. They needed to be placed in accordance with their nature.

He secluded himself in the stone room once more. Once again, he painted the five sigils he wished to join, along with the supporting black-and-white framework.

If I can't compress them together on the same plane, what if I twist them?

He carefully used his incandescent force to twist both the water sigil and the earth sigil clockwise. As they twisted, so did the framework. The sigils realigned themselves accordingly. To Cha Ming's surprise, however, they didn't simply move rigidly with the frame. Rather, the frame slid alongside the sigils to keep them facing outward.

It seems they have a preferred orientation, Cha Ming thought. I need to work with this. At no point can I have them facing anywhere but outward.

As he continued twisting, he pressed them toward each other. As expected, there was much less resistance to this movement. He continued to twist and compress, twist and compress. The white circle was now a white spiral, and the black star no longer looked so starlike. In fact, both the white spiral and the black "helix," for lack of a better word, got thicker as the length between each point reduced.

Cha Ming began to worry that it was going too well. The sigils had smoothly collapsed to half of their original volume, and it still continued. Since things were going so well, he was hesitant to try incorporating the twisting formation into the sigil focus.

I'll wait until I hit a barrier or limit. One half soon became four tenths, and four tenths became three. The sphere was an optimal three-dimensional shape. It minimized volume for any specific radius.

To Cha Ming's amazement, as he pressed them together, the sigils themselves began to change. It started with a subtle shifting in their runic structure. The inner side became thinner, and the outside became bulkier. The original black and white lines had also quadrupled in thickness. In fact, Cha Ming felt as though they were almost touching.

A little more, he thought. And then he heard a pop. The formation in his hands had stabilized in the three-dimensional shape. It was now in the form of a perfect sphere. And in between each gap of five colors and black and white, a cloudy gray substance had filled in. The same gray he had seen in his meridians.

He didn't hesitate to fuse the sigil with the sigil focus, merging them together like drops of water, and the sigil focus's color changed from clear to the same gray that filled the spaces. The same gray as Fuxi's brush. And the same gray as the qi seals connecting his qi pathways. At that moment, Cha Ming felt like he had discovered a universal truth.

He didn't notice as the qi of heaven and earth rushed into him, replenishing his dantian, his body, and his soul. He didn't notice as one after another, he summoned sigils into existence with a few swishes of his brush. He didn't notice as his whole rosary turned gray.

Nor did he notice when every stroke of his brush brought hundreds of runes into existence, which rushed into the gray sigil focuses. He was a heavenly painter, bringing something very natural into the world.

***

Lu Tianhao sat at his desk, gently holding his late daughter's doll. Oh, how he missed her. But there was no bringing her back. Even the few immortals he had asked were helpless. A person would always be reincarnated, but they wouldn't be the same person as before. By the time he had found his daughter, she was already living a happy life with her new family. His own daughter was dead, and someone else's daughter was born. How could he take her away from them?

That was how his hunt for devils began. Since his strength was feeble in a transcendent realm, he headed for the lower realms, where he would be at the peak of power. His actions would be limited, yes, but he could guide others onto the correct path. Like he did his brother for a time. It ended badly, but for hundreds of years they accomplished great deeds together.

Treachery, Lu Tianhao thought. I have experienced treachery far too often in this life. First one, then the other.

Suddenly, he felt all the energy in the city moving toward him.

No, he thought, to somewhere else in the building. It moved toward a remote corner in the Alabaster Group, the practice room that Cha Ming had rented. The disturbance was far too great for him to ignore. In a flash, he appeared beside Cha Ming. He watched as the young man painted with blank eyes and created sigils as though they were nothing. He fused them into forms Tianhao couldn't understand, and he painted runes by the hundreds.

Is this enlightenment on the Dao? Such an experience could never be sought, only found by chance. And as his teacher, it was his duty to be his Dao protector.

Lu Tianhao's eyes flickered as he sensed an approaching transcendent. The man wore a black cloak and emanated a deadly baleful aura. Tianhao flashed in front of him, blocking his path. "What are you doing in my territory, pray tell? Do you think I'm afraid of you?"

The black-cloaked figure's eyes looked toward the practice room where Cha Ming was located. "Enlightenment on the Dao? Such a precious moment. Surely you don't think you can prevent me from disrupting him?"

"I'm afraid normal distractions won't cause him to bat an eyelash," Tianhao said calmly. "But if you actually harm him, I'm sure you know the consequences. Do you think it's worth it?"

The man swished his sleeve, sending howling winds toward the Alabaster Group's building. Everything shook, causing much noise to permeate the entire complex. This included Cha Ming's chamber. Naturally, he didn't wake.

The cloaked man shook his head. "Not worth it, then. Protect away." He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What about you all?" Tianhao said, projecting his voice across the city. Many figures in Daoist robes came out of hiding and bowed. They were all core-formation ants, and they knew better than to barge into the Alabaster Group's territory. After all, there was a bit of a workaround to transcendent interference. He had installed a Five-Element Purple Helios Formation in the building but had granted the control to others in the group. If they acted, using the formation and spirit stones, they could decimate anyone at core formation or below. It wouldn't incur too much karma for him either. It was all about intent, after all. Making a shield to defend someone didn't upset the plane's will so badly, but attacking could damn near kill you.

I wonder how long it will last, he thought before sitting cross-legged in meditation. A single glare of his was enough to frighten just about anyone away.

***

"Rise and shine," a gentle voice said, waking Cha Ming from his sleep. He felt the stone floor beneath him as well as a sticky puddle. It was blood.

"What happened?" Cha Ming asked, groaning.

"You gained enlightenment on the Dao, creating some very mysterious sigils in the process," the voice said. Cha Ming now recognized it as Lu Tianhao. "I was negligent. At the end of the enlightenment session, you collapsed while at your weakest. You bumped your head very hard, and you know how scalp wounds are. They bleed like an open faucet. Doubly so for someone with such powerful vitality, since you regenerate your blood faster than it bleeds out."

Cha Ming opened his eyes and saw his white-haired, white-robed teacher seated in front of him. Off to the side were the hundred and eight sigil focuses. He willed them to his wrist and finally noticed that they were gray.

"Gray…" Cha Ming said. "That's right. I found a way to fuse the five elemental sigils. I condensed them into an eight-colored sphere. Everything merged into gray."

"I should add that you somehow added around ten thousand runes to each sigil focus within twenty-four hours," Lu Tianhao said. "I'm not entirely sure which feat is most impressive. Regardless, you should probably come up with a name for these sigils. They are entirely new, and I can't promise you I won't copy them."

"The five elements came from destruction and creation," Cha Ming said while standing up, "and this gray feels like the fusion between creation and destruction. But the Dao created two, and two created many. Then is this gray the Dao?"

"A bold assumption to say the least," Lu Tianhao huffed.

"Then it's settled," Cha Ming said. "I'll be bold for once. I'll call these Dao sigils." He heard the older man chuckle. "Now then, let's have a rematch."

***

"Are you ready?" Tianhao asked. Cha Ming nodded and bowed. "Begin!"

The white-robed man cast out twenty-four flaming sigils that turned into twenty-four formations. One hundred and fifty thin threads shot out from the twenty-four sigils, threatening to form a Lesser-Grade Burning Dragon Combat Formation. In response, Cha Ming shot out twenty-four Dao sigils that morphed into blue formations. He laid them down so that they blocked the red lines being formed. Blue tendrils shot out to form a Lesser-Grade Ice Dragon Combat Formation.

To his surprise, however, Lu Tianhao retrieved these sigils and cast out twenty-four earth sigils. In turn, Cha Ming retrieved his and cast out twenty-four more Dao sigils. They continued this dance for many cycles as Cha Ming wondered as to the point of it all. The result of such a cycle was a draw. Or was it?

It got Cha Ming thinking. Why was he spending so much time retrieving the sigils? Why didn't he keep them out and exchange the qi after taking it back?

Cha Ming decided to try it. He changed his earth formation to a metal formation, then swiftly withdrew the wood qi and inserted fire qi. He also slightly changed their positions to accommodate a new combat formation as quickly as possible.

To his surprise, Lu Tianhao kept the pace. The speed he used was clearly not the fastest he was capable of. Despite Cha Ming's increased speed, the cycle continued. After many cycles, Cha Ming finally began to wonder—why was there a need to withdraw and insert qi in the first place? He could convert qi by two steps if he so chose. That is, his wood qi could either become fire qi or earth qi. This was one of the wonders of his Perfect Five Elements cultivation technique.

Once again, Cha Ming's pace increased. He didn't withdraw his qi. Rather, he simply willed it to become the next element in sequence, and it was so. His gold formation became a water formation directly in response to Lu Tianhao's shift from a wood formation to a fire formation.

After a few more cycles, he didn't even withdraw the qi tendrils. Instead he shifted the sigil formations from one position to the next while changing the runes and the qi element in the formation lines simultaneously. Then when Tianhao's pace increased once more, he thought about how else he could save time. Why did he need to completely shift the formations? Could he perhaps shift to two-element formations? Then he would only need to change twelve runes out of twenty-four. The new runic lines would be substantially reduced as well.

As Tianhao's gold formation shifted to water to counter Cha Ming's shift from wood to fire, Cha Ming instead chose to transform half his formation. Instead of changing to an earth formation, the counter to water, he only shifted half of the fire to earth. He used his spare soul force to rapidly condense them, finally creating the first formation of their match, the Lesser Magma Formation. Tianhao could only grit his teeth and activate his combat formation, which could only show three-fourths of its prowess as opposed to Cha Ming's, which could show one and a half.

"Impressive," Lu Tianhao said. "But how will you deal with this?" He threw out another twelve sigils. Runic lines shot from these sigils and joined his existing formation. A mid-grade combat formation activated, and Cha Ming's magma formation was immediately overwhelmed by their difference in rank.

"I can't beat a mid-grade formation," Cha Ming said, shaking his head.

"Who knows," Lu Tianhao said, shrugging. "If you only use formations, you're completely correct. However, I've seen people break formations with their fists. This entire time, I've never prevented you from using all means at your disposal.

"In any case, let's stop here for the day. You're qualified as a lesser-grade formation master now. And now that your cultivation is stable, you should consider breaking through to the next level. You have nothing to gain by remaining in early foundation establishment."

Cha Ming inspected his qi seas and saw that they were now like still mirrors without any hint of turbidity. His teacher was right. It was time.