Book 6: Chapter 35: The Heavens Are Definitely Mocking Me

Book 6: Chapter 35: The Heavens Are Definitely Mocking Me

Hed known that this moment would arrive at some point and prepared for it. Natural treasures and beast cores spilled from a storage ring and onto the ground. There were cores from lightning cranes, wind serpents, and some kind of strange shadow beast hed never been able to identify. There were wood, fire, and earth-attributed natural treasures that hed picked up on this trip through the wilds. Hed had similar, although dramatically less potent versions of the same cores and treasures before hed ventured into the wilds. It just seemed foolish to pass up the opportunity to maximize the potential benefits of the new layer to his core.

There were lesser treasures and cores alignment to qi types he didnt regularly cultivate, but that hed still seen signs of lurking around the edges of his techniques. There was winter ivy for ice qi. Hed found himself relying on other techniques to make ice, but hed sensed the ice qi inside of him. There was a core from a stormhawk. Hed been hovering around the edges of making storms of his own for ages. Each core and treasure corresponded to something he was already using other techniques to do or things that he thought were realistic evolutions of things he was doing. After getting those treasures out, he had to focus. While the process was familiar to him, he was theoretically introducing new elements. That could mean instabilities in the process he lacked the knowledge or experience to predict.

Mostly, though, he needed to bend his mind and will toward drawing all the different kinds of qi he needed to mix with that divine qi to form the new layer of the core. Plus, there was the compression required. Hed been warned that each successive layer would likely require more effort. As with alchemy, Sen didnt try to actively control the process. He knew what he wanted and needed. He trusted his instincts to guide the details. Even as he focused on compressing the gathered qi, he felt other things happening. He felt the pool of liquid qi in his dantian drain away to be added to the layer. He felt himself dragging qi into his body and dantian from the cores and natural treasures. He felt the subtle manipulation of all those disparate types of qi being fused, melded, and woven together in ways he could never have accomplished with a conscious effort.

The new layer grew over the old and, yet, it also grew into the previous layer, as though the process had liquefied the old surface of his core to allow for a better, more stable layer to form after the process was completed. He got lost in the process, most of his mental energies devoted to compressing that qi down into something ever-denser and more compact. Not simply a layer, but a shield that would protect the nascent soul growing inside his core from the dire tribulation that awaited him at the transition between core formation and the nascent soul stage. A tribulation that killed a dreadfully large percentage of the people who attempted to break through between those stages. A very legitimate fear of annihilation had stopped many cultivators cold at the peak of core cultivation. Sen just wished that he had that option. He was more certain than ever that if he tried to just stop advancing, the world itself would turn on him and force the issue.nove(l)bi(n.)com

There was a momentary burst of relief as Sen felt the fresh and substantially thicker layer on his core solidify. That relief was immediately undercut by the heavenly qi that just kept pouring into him. For one terrifying second, he was completely at a loss. Hed formed his core. There was nothing left to do. He imagined drowning in that river of qi before determination rose up to displace the animal fear that was threatening to unmake him. The new layer might be complete, but it wasnt as though he was nothing but a core. He seized control of some of that qi and used it to reinforce the spiral of divine qi that orbited his dantian. What had always looked relatively slender in his minds eye grew thicker and then thicker still.

Heavenly qi was a unique, powerful blessing, but it usually came in small doses. A fraction of what had been shoved inside of him was enough to trigger advancements and offer insights into the nature of existence. He felt like a fleshy sack that had been overstuffed and some negligent clerk was trying to cram more inside of him. If he was going to survive what was increasingly feeling like some kind of punishment or bizarre cultivator nightmare, he had to act. He needed to find something to do with all of that qi. It was anathema to everything cultivators believed, but he could expel it. Just dump it into the environment. He had no idea what that would do to the plants, animals, and spirit beasts in the area, but he was swiftly approaching the point of not caring at all about those kinds of things. Other cultivators would lose their minds at just discarding all of that qi, but other cultivators didnt risk dying from a so-called blessing.

Resolved to do the unthinkable, Sen tried to push the divine qi out of his body. Hed barely even started before something from outside stopped him. It was an immutable force. A will the likes of which hed never felt that simply decided that he would not discard this gift from the heavens. Sen had thought that the pain in his body earlier had been severe, but that was a sip of cool fruit juice compared to the incandescent torture he was going through now. He couldnt tell if he was screaming or not. He thought he must be, but his mind had retreated from all of it in some act of sanity preservation. He struggled to find a solution, but anything he came up with simply wouldnt use enough of the heavenly qi to matter. Meanwhile, he could sense his body starting to unravel. Ive got seconds left before this really does just kill me, he thought with an odd level of calm.

Maybe the heavens had expected him to find a solution and hed just failed. It wasnt like people overcame every challenge the heavens sent their way. He had done everything he could think to do and come up short. Accepting that truth let him move past the fear and panic. He supposed he could stop worrying about some master manipulator from beyond the stars waiting for him after ascension. That was liberating, even if it did come mere moments from death. As Sen braced himself for the final moment, he felt something odd. Something inside of him, something he couldnt see or access directly, shifted a little. There was a tremendous crack that reverberated inside his being, and it was like a gate had opened to somewhere. All of that excess divine qi started draining away from him. No, he thought, not away from me. Its draining away from my body and my core. But where is it going?

He tried to follow the path of the qi to whatever hole had opened upside of him, but he couldnt. He wasnt stopped like he had been when he tried to expel the qi. Nothing intervened to prevent him from doing it. He just didnt have the mental strength left to do it. Hed taxed his mind to its limits and then taxed it some more. Now, the price was due. He was conscious. He was aware. That was as far as it went. He had to satisfy himself with the reality that the qi was going somewhere and that somewhere wasnt causing him pain. He could feel questions or things that might become questions later swirling around somewhere below his conscious mind. There was, as usual, too much happening that he didnt understand. But as all that qi was dragged away to somewhere else, all he could really think about was that he wasnt going to die.

A breath Sen hadnt realized he was holding exploded from his lips as the crushing pressure of heavenly qi finally relented. The last of the heavenly qi was pulled away to its mysterious new home. Wherever that was. Sens head lolled to one side and he lifted a trembling hand to wipe away the wetness on his face. He blinked at the sight of his hand and then shook it off. Hed deal with that later. He wiped his face and wasnt surprised to see the hand came away bloody. This hadnt been an easy advancement. Some of the physical misery he was still in leaked through to his conscious mind and Sen groaned.

The heavens are definitely mocking me.