Ave Xia Rem Y

~~~

“Do you feel that person over there?”

Liu Jin’s heart drops when Xun Hunwen casually points to where Senior Brother Guo and the others are. Even that seemingly harmless gesture could kill them all if Xun Huwen wished for it.

“Of course, you do. You had hopes in him until a few moments ago. I don’t blame you for it. He’s strong. Many Sects in the Crimson Cloud Empire would feel their future is assured with someone like him in their ranks. Even if we’re speaking of the Four Great Sects,”--Xun Huwen snorts--“he’s decently remarkable. However, he’s made not a single move to approach this place since I showed up. He was coming this way, you know? But as soon as he sensed me, he stopped.”

Xun Huwen’s words sting, but Liu Jin cannot blame Senior Brother Guo for showing common sense. Even with the increased physicality given to him by the treatment he and Senior Brother Luo developed, Senior Brother Guo is no match for Xun Huwen. Trying to fight him would just lead to his death.

“And that’s exactly why he fails.”

“Anyone would rightly hesitate to face you!” Liu Jin shouts despite how much it hurts him to do so. “There is no failure in that.”

“Wrong.” Xun Huwen sighs and shakes his head. “You should know better, junior. Let’s see, maybe you’re confused by all this noise. Let’s remove it.”

Xun Huwen snaps his fingers, and the world around them vanishes. The Qi, the noise, the scents. Liu Jin can no longer feel any of it. It is as if he’s suddenly in a completely different place.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Xun Huwen rubs his chin as he looks around. “It is small, but not many people are capable of creating their own spatial realm, not that I am creating anything. I am also not good enough to completely remove us from the outside world yet. You can see the battle if you turn your head enough, though I don’t recommend doing so. The way your body is, you might just break your neck.”

Prompted by his words, Liu Jin immediately creates more Qi snakes to support his neck and other weak areas of his body.

Xun Huwen laughs. “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You’re still struggling. Deep down, you don’t believe you are dead. I can feel your very existence desperately trying to be acknowledged. But no, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Things have an order for a reason, even if it is a stupid reason. When I created this spatial realm, the first thing you noticed was missing wasn’t the wind or the noise or even the lovely smells. It was the Qi. That’s normal. The ability to sense Qi is a useful one, so we rely on it to the point it begins to supplant all our other senses. You’re probably at that point or close to it already.”

Liu Jin looks away. He has had this feeling for a while, but it is as if Xun Huwen can see right through him.

“However, useful is all it is. Qi is not the deciding factor in cultivation. Just look at Lady Ling. She sensed my Qi and had the audacity to believe herself my superior. All because she is in the Ninth Level of the Heaven Realm while I am in the first. The same thing is happening here. That disciple feels my Qi and believes himself to have no chance against me.”

Xun Huwen’s eyes bore into his.

“Isn’t that the stupidest thing?”

Liu Jin frowns. “Are you… are you speaking of Dao?”

Xun Huwen’s face noticeably brightens. “Oh, good. You know that much. But no. I am speaking of the weight of our existence. A Dao is… an after effect. A consequence of proper cultivation.”

Liu Jin blinks. A consequence?

“Lady Ling might be in a higher cultivation realm than me, but my existence is infinitely heavier than hers. I matter more than her, so a reality where she can defeat me does not exist.”

I matter more.

Liu Jin stares at Xun Hunwen. The older disciple just said something impossibly outrageous.

“Confused? Let’s see, the old man of the Infinite Mountain once said our existence is like gravity. He’s a bit of a bore, but he has the right idea. When we cultivate, people think we’re just cultivating Qi. Taking it from our surroundings, using it to refine our bodies so they may better use Qi, and so on. Worthless people like that are the norm.”

Xun Hunwen holds out his palm. Two blue spheres of Qi appear on top of it.

“Think of these two orbs as cultivators.”

Suddenly, a myriad of smaller red orbs appear around them.

“And these are opportunities. I am not speaking figuratively here,” he adds, noticing Liu Jin’s confusion. “When I say opportunities, I mean exactly that. Being at the right time to overhear an important conversation. Impressing a local, affluent person. Encountering an old man who gives you good cultivation advice. Stumbling upon an old manual. Rescuing a beautiful damsel. Being chosen for a task allows you to reap great rewards. Those opportunities are always out there waiting for people to grab them. Just by looking at the orbs, you’d think these two people have an equal chance of reaching these opportunities, but look at what happens if we change things a little..”

One of the spheres suddenly grows brighter and bluer than the other. As it does, the smaller red orbs are pulled into its orbit. The “opportunities” are no longer within equal reach of both cultivators.

“You’re probably thinking something like, ‘Naturally, the stronger cultivator has greater odds of seizing the opportunities around him,’ but it goes far beyond that. He’s not trying. He’s not doing. They’re inevitably being pulled towards him. It is because of-”

“The weight of our existence,” Liu Jin mutters, looking at Xun Huwen’s projection. He wishes he didn’t, but he understands exactly what Xun Huwen is trying to convey.

“Exactly!” Xun Huwen grins approvingly. “We do not cultivate our bodies. We do not cultivate Qi. We cultivate our very existence, and the more refined it is, the heavier it becomes. Heaven’s Will no longer has any say on our paths. Instead, we are the ones that bring our will into the world. Our words are the ones with weight. Our acts are the ones that matter. Everyone and anything else is nothing but fodder.”

“You are wrong…” Liu Jin glares. “You are not...”

Because if Xun Huwen is truly, intrinsically more important as a person, then what does that make everyone else?

What does it mean for the thousands of people that live at the whims of the strong?

Is he supposed to accept they are nothing but fodder?

“Is that so?” Xun Huwen asks. “Then how are you here?”

“What?”

“How did you recover from my attack when it should have left you in bed for several weeks? How did you survive in the Dead Plains when it has killed several cultivators in higher realms than you? How did you reach the True Realm so quickly? How did you face the fleshcrafter’s technique and take it as your own? How are you standing before me once more?”

Xun Huwen’s finger slowly comes down until it points at Liu Jin’s head.

“Do you understand what I have been trying to tell you, junior? Clashes between cultivators are not clashes of Qi but clashes of existence. You have survived so far because the weight of what you have cultivated refuses to submit to the world around you. Can you feel it? Your existence clashing against mine? Can you rage and scream until the Heavens themselves have no choice but to allow you to continue existing?”

Distortions begin spreading around them.

“If you can’t accomplish something so simple, you’ll die right here.”

~~~

Lu Mei is not amused.

Ever since she made contact with Feng Hao, her condition has rapidly improved. That being the case, she has to wonder why she is not out there making sure she and Jin have a way to escape ready for when all inevitably goes poorly.

Jin won’t leave without the Young Master, so she would have to knock Feng Hao out first, something easily accomplished. The girl from the Exploration Division, Fan or something, would give her a bigger challenge, but with the Eternal Flame and a potential hostage on her side, a bigger challenge is all it would be. Hardly an insurmountable one.

And yet, she is following along. Walking deeper into a dark temple full of stale air, unreasonably sinuous passages, and unfamiliar Spirit Beasts, many of which she has already killed. All at the whims of a child!

It is not because she feels whatever it is that he is feeling.

Certainly not because the Eternal Flame within her is telling her to keep going.

Not at all.

“What is this place?”

“The inner sanctum of the temple,” comes the useless reply from Fan. The girl walks with her eyes firmly on the walls, occasionally running her hands over their surface. It is a miracle that she has yet to trip.

“It seems I was wrong about this place. Or rather, I was looking at an incomplete picture. I believed this to be a place of worship, a sanctuary of sorts.”

“We do call it a temple,” Lu Mei points out dryly.

“Yes, but there is more to it. The carvings in the upper levels are older than many of the ones inside.”

There is an unspoken request for a question in her voice, but Lu Mei refuses to give her the satisfaction. Feng Hao looks like he is about to, but a simple shake from Lu Mei’s head stops him.

The stare Fan gives them in return is probably the closest she has come to glaring.

“The walls down here were not meant to have writings on them. Not all of them, at least. People started writing on them because they needed a way to leave a record behind. Something happened.” She frowns and squints at the walls. “A war, most likely, but perhaps not. Cataclysm might be the best word for it. It seems this place became a stronghold.”

“So? The Dead Plains exists because a cataclysm ravaged these lands and everything beyond it. Scholars have been theorizing it for ages.”

Not that Lu Mei cares about such things, but as a proper lady of the Red Sky Pavilion, her education required her to learn about it.

Lu Mei wonders what it says about her that she much preferred her mother’s lessons.

“Not the lands beyond it.”

“What?”

“Not the lands beyond it,” Fan repeats. “What lies beyond the Dead Plains wasn’t ravaged. Our lands were.”

Lu Mei and Feng Hao both blink.

“But that’s not the important part.”

“Oh, it absolutely is!” cries Lu Mei.

Does she not understand? If their lands were the ones ravaged, that means the lands beyond the Dead Plains, should there be any, are the ones with greater untouched history!

“It’s close!” Feng Hao shouts. He is almost bouncing in place, and to her annoyance, Lu Mei can feel it too. “We’re almost there!”

Before either can say anything, Feng Hao takes off into the unknown.

“Young Master, wait!” Fan shouts, going after him. “You cannot just go on your own.”

Despite her warning, Fan doesn’t stop him, a sure sign there are no traps ahead of them. Feng Hao leads them on a series of turns throughout the long, sinuous passages of the temple until he arrives at his goal.

A blind corridor.

“No,” Feng Hao says. He looks around, his hands frantically touching the wall as if he couldn’t believe it was real. “There has to be something. It’s here! I know it is.”

“Young Master.” Under the girl’s usual monotone, Lu Mei can detect a hint of sympathy. “There’s nothing here.”

Lu Mei sighs.

“Look again.”

Fan blinks in surprise.

“Whatever it is he’s feeling, I feel it too,” Lu Mei continues, crossing her arms and adopting a well-practiced look of disdain. “Surely, the Exploration Division will not object to exploring?”

“This is hardly the time for such…” she trails off as she looks at the wall beyond Lu Mei. Fan immediately walks past her, almost pushing her out of the way in her rush. “That is not the right pattern…”

The girl kneels, using her hands to feel the carvings on the walls. The look on her face is of intense concentration.

“Young Master!” she says, looking back at Feng Hao. “The floor!”

“I found it!” Feng Hao cries out happily as he pushes one of the tiles under them.

A soft click reaches their ears, and Lu Mei immediately braces for a trap. None comes. The wall rolls out of the way and reveals a room behind it.

“A hasty addition,” Fan Bingbing says as they walk inside. “That wall must have been placed during the last days, but why were you and the Young Master the ones who found this? The Feng Clan has sent people here before. If the Eternal Flame was all that was required, surely that requirement should have been met centuries ago.”

“I am sure I have no idea what you are talking about,” Lu Mei says.

“Of course not,” Fan says. “My mistake. Regardless, something must have happened. A requirement must have been fulfilled in some way.”

“Does it matter? Perhaps the moon is in the right place. Perhaps the sun is. The question is whether this will be worth it or not.”

Fan looks like she is about to say something, but Feng Hao speaks before she can.

“Look!” Feng Hao cries happily. The flames around him grow in intensity to illuminate the entire room. “This is it!”

A large golden monolith stands at the center of the room. Even before Feng Hao pointed it out, they had already sensed the power radiating from it. It is faint, yet there is something ancient and deep about it. Power like that is something they desperately need right now.

Unfortunately, there is an issue.

“There is a barrier around it,” Lu Mei points out.

A golden field surrounded the monolith. Though they had not sensed it while they were outside the room, now that they are inside, it is impossible to ignore.

“Unsurprising,” Fan says, approaching the barrier but never doing something so foolish as to touch it. When Feng Hao attempts to do so, she immediately bats his hand away. “This is what I wanted to tell you about. This place was repurposed to fight a war. The walls outside would have made a poor defense for the cataclysm described. It must have had some other means of defense… and of attack.”

“Then it’s a weapon!” Feng Hao cries out excitedly. “We can help with this!”

“That’s one possibility,” Fan admits. “However...”

“We don’t have the power to break the barrier,” Lu Mei says, all while trying to ignore the voice telling her she should reach out and take hold of what is in front of her.

“Feng Hao!”

It is as if the sun has entered the room. Fan Bingbing shields her face with her arms and raises her Qi. Despite being in a lower realm of cultivation, Lu Mei faces no such hardships, though she will not go as far as to say Feng Zhi’s presence is easy to bear.

“You!” He says, glaring at her with such fury that Lu Mei takes a moment to review all her misdeeds and ponders in what way she has wronged him.

It is a long moment, but she finds herself innocent for once.

“Brother!” Feng Hao cries out. “We need your help.”

“What we need is for you to leave this place!” Feng Zhi says, stomping over to him and grabbing him by the wrist. “Do you have any idea how much danger you are in right now?”

“Yes!” Feng Hao says, trying to shake himself free. A futile struggle until a golden spark forces Feng Zhi away. “I feel it clearly! But please, listen!”

Feng Zhi looks shocked, but it barely lasts a second. “There’s no time!”

It is clear to Lu Mei that Feng Zhi will not listen to Feng Hao. It is not that he has somehow missed the monolith radiating power in the center of the room. He simply doesn’t care about it. Nothing matters to him beyond taking Feng Hao away.

Lu Mei makes a choice.

“Young Master Feng Zhi!” Lu Mei snaps at him. “Focus!”

“Do not interrupt! This does not concern…”

He trails off, anger gradually giving way to surprise and shock. It is only natural.

For the first time, Lu Mei calls on the Eternal Flame in the direct presence of a member of the Feng Clan.

“Your brother is trying to tell you something. It would be in everyone’s best interests for you to listen.”

The barrier might be too strong for them, but with Feng Zhi…

“Brother,” Feng Hao says. “I understand that you want to protect me. I could have died when I ran away. I know that now. I was reckless. If you don’t want to listen to your reckless younger brother, then at least listen to the Eternal Flame inside us. You want to protect me? Here’s something that can do that.”

With Feng Zhi’s help, it might just be possible.

Lu Mei holds her breath as Feng Zhi finally turns to the barrier and the monolith inside.

~~~

Xun Huwen’s spatial realm shatters around them.

The outside world comes back in full force, and with it, something new. A golden radiance spreads throughout the entire battlefield.

Liu Jin screams.

The light ravages his body with binding intensity. It isn’t just him. All the foul beasts attacking them are annihilated one by one. Even the ones he controls are destroyed by the light.

Only the humans are left untouched.

Only he is the exception.

“Well, isn’t that interesting?” Xun Huwen says, looking down on him as the light sears what little flesh Liu Jin has left. “Would you look at that? All the monsters are being killed, yet I am whole, and you are not.”

Liu Jin grits his teeth and finds the strength to glare at Xun Huwen. The light burns, but it starts doing something else as well.

It heals.

His wounds heal. His bones bend. His flesh and muscles regrow. Then they’re burned again. Heal and burn. Burn and heal. Liu Jin’s body is fulminated by light and repaired several times in a single second. Xun Huwen could easily kill him, but he seems content to watch him scream, to wait and see whether the light will kill him or save him.

When Liu Jin finally collapses on the ground, he’s tired and wounded, yet whole. At the very least, it seems all his bones are inside his body this time.

The light is done with him, it seems.

“I am impressed,” Xun Huwen says. “Still, that is just one requirement cleared. What will you do about this?”

The distortion around Xun Huwen spreads to swallow Liu Jin whole. There is nothing he can do to dodge under his own power.

Senior Brother Guo saves him instead.

The Earth Realm disciple appears out of nowhere, dashing with all his strength to carry him out of the way.

“Senior Brother Guo!” Liu Jin shouts with worry. The Earth Realm disciple might have saved him, but who will save him?

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the coward who was too scared to approach me,” Xun Huwen says as he immediately cuts Senior Brother Guo’s escape route.

“You speak the truth,” Senior Brother Guo says. “However, this speed was granted to me by the efforts of my juniors. What is the point of it if I fail to use it to save one of them?”

“Interesting.” Xun Huwen says. “But pointless.”

Senior Brother Guo’s legs are gone.

In an instant. In the blink of an eye, everything below his knees disappears. Senior Brother Guo screams and falls, and Liu Jin falls along with him.

“Is this it?” Xun Hunwen asks, slowly walking up to them. “How disappointing.”

Lightning strikes.

For a moment, everyone stops. Even Xun Huwen’s calm is broken. The power upon them does not belong to a cultivator in the Earth Realm or even in the Heaven Realm.

It is the power of a Renegade.

“It seems we meet again.”

“Duke…” Liu Jin whispers as he sees the Renegade he ran into during his first days in the Dead Plains. His eyes widen further when he sees who is next to him. “Lei Kong..”

“My lord!” Lei Kong cries out as he rushes to his side. “What have they done to you, my lord?”

“So this is the one, then? I had a feeling.” The Duke turns to face Xun Huwen. “Whatever your designs, it seems I must keep this one alive for now. Leave.”

Xun Huwen laughs.

Even though he is face to face with a Renegade, Xun Huwen dares to laugh. Liu Jin is not sure whether that speaks of bravery or madness.

“I see! I see! Of course!” Xun Huwen holds his gut as he tries to get himself under control. So great is his laughter he even wipes a tear from his eye. “I understand. It seems I no longer have any role left to play. Not here or on our side of the Dead Plains.”

The Duke raises an eyebrow. “You believe yourself capable of crossing? I gave you the courtesy of words, but it seems I have met a madman. Very well, if you wish to kill yourself, I shan’t interrupt.”

He is going to let him go.

He is going to let him go!

The realization chills Liu Jin to the core. He wants to shout and scream at the Duke that he should kill Xun Huwen right now, but multiple wracking coughs cut him off. Perhaps, it is a good thing they do. The Duke is not his ally. There is no telling how he’d react to being ordered.

Even if he did decide to kill Xun Huwen, that might not necessarily be for the best. A single attack from a Renegade could devastate this area. Even if the Duke decided to show an uncharacteristic amount of restraint for his Realm, Xun Huwen wouldn’t. Not with his life on the line. His dying gaps might kill them all.

“This is goodbye for now, junior,” Xun Huwen says, bending and waving goodbye at him. “I will be taking the next step. It is up to you to decide whether you wish to follow one day.”

Xun Huwen vanishes, and the battlefield is left silent. The disciples are too scared to speak in the presence of a Renegade, and the beasts have all been annihilated by the barrier. Even the Dead Qi outside begins meandering away after a few breaths.

The battle is over, and they have survived.

~~~