Book 6: Chapter 36: Cold Comfort

Book 6: Chapter 36: Cold Comfort

Everything inside of Sen wanted him to No, it was begging him to sleep. The kind of overpowering exhaustion that came from having your mind, body, and cultivation taxed to their limits wasnt new to Sen, but it simply wasnt something that a person could ever learn to shrug off. It went too deep, and nothing could cure it but sleep. Unfortunately, Sen also knew that a tribulation could be headed his way at that very second. He really didnt want lightning burning a hole through his tent. Itd let the rain in, thought Sen. He knew that worrying about his tent when a possibly lethal tribulation might strike at any second was absurd on a level that bordered on the insane. Yet, the thought persisted and forced Sen to action. Fighting his body the entire way, Sen crawled out of his tent.

He was surprised in a disturbingly distant way that it was night. He wasnt sure if it was the same night or a different night and couldnt muster the energy to care. Sen tried to stand, got as far as his knees, and simply couldnt rise any farther. His body either refused to stand or was incapable of it. Sen supposed that there wasnt much practical difference between those options, but it felt like an important distinction. His eyes kept threatening to close without so much as a courtesy check-in with his mind even as he tried to scan the skies. For all that hed just gained, and he knew that he had gained a lot, Sen felt horribly vulnerable. He wasnt sure hed be able to do anything more than simply take the hits and hope for the best if a tribulation descended at that moment. That cheery line of thought was interrupted by the near-hysterical voice of Laughing River.

What in every single last hell was that? demanded the elder fox.

Sen managed to look over the fox, half lifted a hand to either wave the fox off or possibly just to wave. Parsing his own intentions through the haze of exhaustion was next to impossible. His vision was getting blurry around the edges as sleep threatened to claim him regardless of his will in the matter. Misty Peaks eyes were open as wide as they could go and remained locked on Sen. He did his best to sum up what had just happened in the fewest possible words that would allow the other two to make sense of it. When he realized that no version of that explanation existed that only took one syllable, he just grunted something wholly inarticulate at them. He turned his eyes skyward again, hoping against hope that this would be one of those times the heavens opted not to send a tribulation.

Did he always look like that? asked a perplexed Misty Peak.

No, he most certainly did not always look like that. Sen, what- Laughing River started to say.

Of course, Sen wasnt sure what a sudden influx of heavenly qi would do to a soul. He had to assume that it would be helpful but helpfulness was often a matter of degrees. The right amount of medicine would help, while the wrong amount could kill. How much divine qi could a soul absorb without harm? The dumb turtle had said his soul was already under strain. Would that fresh qi heal that strain or add to it? He didnt know. Worse, he didnt think he knew anyone who would know. Cultivators dealt in bodies and cores, not the ineffable, transcendent presence that was the immortal soul. While he hadnt discussed it in depth with Master Feng, the elder cultivator had expressed his own belief that the nascent soul was something different than the immortal soul. Something layered over the immortal soul, rather than a replacement. Master Feng had also admitted that it was only his own belief and that no cultivator hed ever met was sure about the relationship.

It left a disturbing amount of ground for uncertainty in Sens opinion, as well as reinforcing his own belief that cultivators didnt simply ascend into godhood. If nothing else, he thought that gods should understand souls as a basic requirement for that role in the universe. He supposed that there was the possibility that ascension unlocked that kind of knowledge, but he doubted it. Hed had to learn everything he knew about cultivation. Even the things he did on instinct only happened after he started learning about something. No, it seemed far more likely that the path to true godhood was a lot longer than most cultivators wanted to believe. Sighing, Sen realized that he was thinking about increasingly tangential things simply to avoid looking at something he didnt want to think about.

Glaring a little, he lifted a hand and turned it back and forth. I guess I wasnt imagining that part, he thought. While he imagined that mortal eyes would just see a faint glow about him, Sens eyes could see what was really happening. There were thousands of tiny points of concentrated divine qi covering his skin. That was problematic for several reasons, but the biggest reason was that Sen didnt know what it meant for him. If he was just going to glow a little bit, that would be wildly inconvenient but manageable. His luck never seemed to run that way, though. It seemed far more likely that those points of concentrated qi were meant to do something. And if I had the nonexistent manual for the Six-Fold Body Transformation, Sen thought with more than a little annoyance, it would probably be in there. Deciding that glowing was too much to bear, he tried to consciously suppress the glow. Much to Sens surprise, it worked. Those points of condensed divine qi seemed to sink deeper into his skin.

Well, at least one thing went right today, he said.

As soon as the words passed his lips, those points reappeared on his skin.

Oh, come on!