Chapter 19: Greatest Power in the Enlightened Realm
So this is a divine ability!
Divine abilities were powerful skills showing a level of power accessible only to the most powerful cultivators, those who could shatter mountains and boil seas.
Most of the legends he knew of were so outlandish he had dismissed most of them, but in front of him was a divine ability that could easily be part of the legends: A sun made of lightning.
The lightning sun was power incarnate. It was the size of a small hill and made up of dozens of lightning bolts all dancing and coiling around one another, ever so close but never once touching.
Considering the sheer number of lightning bolts and the power Wei felt rolling off the lightning sun, it surprised him it didn’t implode. It also surprised the False God with it’s power his disdain turning into sincere praise. “Fantastic, you’ve even tamed a bit of heavenly tribulation lightning and add it to your divine ability. It won’t be enough to let you win or even escape but perhaps you will withstand my first attack.”
Giving no sign he had heard anything the ancestor roared once more, and the heavens roared back. The hundreds of lightning bolts crackled and coiled even further as they condensed into a smaller, much brighter sun. It shed small sparks of excess lightning, each one of them creating massive explosions, leaving huge pits all over the surrounding earth.
The smaller condensed lightning sun crackled threateningly.
“Meng Rui I don’t have full control of this divine ability, instead of fighting to the bitter end why don’t you just give up?”
“You won’t have to suffer at all as long as you’re willing to be possessed, and I won’t have to waste time healing your body after I possess you. What do you say? Not a bad deal, right?”
The False God laughed “You’re not very persuasive ancestor, stick to —“
With no warning, the forest was decimated. A second later Wei heard rumbles of thunder.
So fast was the ancestor’s attack that Wei didn’t a thing, all he could do was follow the trail of destruction left in its wake. The surrounding earth and trees shattered and wildfires broke out charring the land and belching smoke that obscured the surroundings.
As if in response to the attack Wei felt a strong pull once more, he welcomed it knowing what it meant. His second possession of the False God was seamless compared to the first, he only experienced a twinge of pain and then Wei felt true power once more.
Not only could he sense the False god’s titanic strength, mental qi, and true qi he could even see through his eyes. I needed to see and now I can. There is so much more to mental qi. I can almost feel it.
The first thing Wei saw with his improved vision was the crackling bolt of lightning clenched in his fist.
He caught the lightning bolt! Wei marveled in disbelief. Then the False God moved. This time thanks to his improved vision Wei could see the attack coming. Three lightning bolts snaked through the air accompanied by the now-familiar sound of thunder.
The False God weaved around them with startling ease dodging the bolts of heavens wrath as if he was taking a walk. A fraction of a second later he was casually floating in his original spot.
“Not bad, your speed is decent, still if all you will do is dodge then this fight won’t last much longer,” the ancestor said voice dry. This time when Wei saw him a cloak of azure qi was surrounding him. The lightning sun, however, was mostly azure qi mixed with streaks of red that gave Wei a feeling of extreme discomfort. That must be tribulation lightning.
“You are wrong ancestor, for you, this may be a fight, for me it’s only amusement.”
Then, False God activated his divine ability.
His qi was so powerful that when it manifesting itself as a small almost transparent grey flame flickering above his head the surrounding space distorted. Wei felt a small flex of the False god’s true qi and his axe disappeared stored somewhere beyond Wei’s perception. He then released the lightning bolt held in his fist. It immediately moved to strike him; however, the grey flame above his head released a tongue of flame that destroyed it instantly.
Wei’s eyes widened. What the hell is that thing?! The feeling it gave Wei was on a different level than the lightning sun; it was countless times more powerful.
Instinctively Wei knew that the grey flame was not, in fact, fire and that it was only mimicking the shape.
The ancestor confirmed his thoughts, “What is that manifestation?”
“The Law of Decay? No, it’s too strong! Law of Death? No, too uncontrolled and the aura is slightly different.”
“It’s the Law of Absolute Destruction,” the False God said answering both of their questions. There was deep pride in his voice, he waved his hand and the grey flame fell like a shooting star into the forest. It passed through stone and wood alike leaving not even ashes in its wake.
“Have you gone mad?! You fool!” The ancestor roared, anger plain in his voice. “You’ve ruined everything! No one has cultivated the law of absolute destruction since the age of Shapers for a reason. The few who had the chance to learn it all chose other paths. It gives great power now for eternal stagnation. It will destroy all your other enlightenments!”
“You have to be in control of it at all times, always vigilant, if there is ever even a moment’s lapse of control it will destroy you just as surely as your enemies.”
“It almost sounds like you’re concerned for me ancestor,” the False God laughed. “Now that I’ve shown you that your probing attacks are useless against me, let’s see how your divine ability fares. Perhaps you can be something more than a pale imitation of heavens lightning.”
Wei saw the exact moment the ancestor changed his mindset from victory to survival. The eyes he had now were sharp enough to pick up the signs. The ancestor knew he was outmatched. It showed in his stance, his eyes, even his divine ability now looked like a shield instead of a sword.
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The ancestor pointed his finger and the lightning sun tore through the air towards the False God arcs of lightning destroying everything in its way. The False God was ready his mental qi having already warned him, his power of destruction hovered in front of him, an impenetrable shield.
For a second, it looked like they would collide, but at the last moment, the ancestor acted his hands blurring through several hand gestures. The lightning sun collapsed and in its place, three lightning bolts–two azure and one red weaved around the power of destruction attacking the False God from three separate directions.
Without hesitation, the False God shifted the power of destruction to block the red tribulation lightning. With his monstrous physical strength, Wei knew he would survive the two other attacks with minor injuries. All his expectations went out the window when all three of the ancestor’s attacks detonated destroying everything around for hundreds of miles.
Wei hadn’t felt even a sliver of warning from the mental qi but somehow the False God was prepared he called upon all of his true qi gathering it all in a fraction of a second and unleashing it. “Destruction Domain,” he spoke, and the day became night once more. Wei felt a faint impression of power much greater than the power of destruction, but it disappeared as soon as he felt it, leaving the False God unscathed.
The ancestor was also unscathed standing in a cocoon of tribulation lightning. “You have a domain, and one formed of Absolute Destruction at that.”
“How could you improve so drastically? I thought I had moved forward along my path, that I had made great strides. Compared to you, I may as well have been standing still. How did you do it Meng Rui?”
“I had an obsession. Since the day I entered the world of cultivation until today, it has sustained me. I have put my life on the line for it and experienced things that shattered my very being. All to get as close to it as possible, to attain a true understanding.”
“My obsession is greater than to ascend and gain immortality. Do you have such a goal Ancestor? An obsession that is all-consuming? Or have you lived for so long you’ve forgotten it?”
The Ancestor chuckled wryly “an obsession, eh. I suppose you’re right. Stagnation is the worst thing that can happen to a cultivator, still, after a few centuries, the decades all start blurring together.”
“So your endless obsession led you to invincibility. I truly admire you, Meng Rui!”
“I also admire you ancestor, your facade is as polished as ever, but you can stop your stalling. Your reinforcements aren’t coming.” The False God pulled on his mental qi, it revealed four prismatic rings on his right hand. They pulsed gently and gleamed with dozens of hues.
A look of horrified shock appeared in the ancestors’ face at the sight of the rings before he exploded into action. In an instant, what had been a man cloaked in lightning transformed into a living bolt of lightning.
Even with the eyes of the False God, Wei couldn’t see a thing. For him, one instant the ancestor had been in front of him and the next he vanished. The False God chuckled wryly and with a slight flex of his will his mental qi engulfed everything.
The False god’s mental qi engulfed the heavens and the earth and everything in between. Seeing everything through mental qi was wondrous beyond anything Wei could have imagined. He has little need for eyes when his mind sees everything a thousand times better.
Wei eagerly observed the flow of the mental qi to try to glean some understanding from it. To the False god’s mental qi the Ancestors qi was a shining beacon. He tracked him as a hunter would prey. However, to Wei’s confusion, he made no move to follow.
The ancestor flew, thunder and destruction following in his wake. Wei watched enraptured as the lightning bolt destroyed a mountain range with such ease it was almost casual. Still, what was even more impressive was the range of False god’s mental qi. No matter how fast the lightning bolt moved, it never escaped his awareness.
The False god’s mental qi showed no signs of stopping, expanding at a rapid pace and covering massive swathes of land. Within a minute Wei was at his limit but he endured eager to see the end of the battle. A sudden pang of pain and fatigue rippled throughout his being reminding him that his already feeble mental qi was almost completely depleted. Wei felt regret only for an instant before he remembered the tremendous opportunity in front of him.
With renewed determination, Wei stopped following the mental qi’s outward expansion and instead focused on following it back to its origins in his Dantian. What greeted him was the core of the False God’s power in the form of an entire world. Wei tried to focus on the sprawling mountains and the endless ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see but it was impossible. The grand structures made of true qi held little appeal, especially when compared to the sky.
The entire sky was awash with mental qi. Tens of thousands of techniques and methods gave him endless insights and ideas to improve his mental qi but he forced himself to look past them, he only had limited time so he had to value quality over quantity. In the center of them, all was the core of the False God’s mental qi. A sphere of light that was forged through tempered Will and Intent. Every few seconds it pulsed and released a staggering amount of highly refined qi. In a minute, it had released more mental qi than Wei had in his entire body, with thousands of times the purity.
Instead of being cowed by the power of the core Wei felt a deep hunger, a sharp want to consume it and make the power his own. However, regardless of how intense the desire became Wei stayed put. His mental qi had never failed him and he was tempted to let it have free reign, but the difference between his mental qi and the False God’s was too big and he was very bothered by the amount of influence it had on him in such a short period.
If I do everything according to its whims won’t I just be a puppet? I am the one in control!
With a quick application of his will, Wei shut out the hunger and watched the core intently. With calm focus and ample patience, he noticed what he hadn’t in his addled state.
An almost imperceptible thread of destruction qi circled the core with lazy looping motions but Wei knew that if he came close to it, it would destroy him instantly and all of his insights along with him. The danger was clear and in the open now but it still took Wei a staggering amount of effort to keep his mental qi at bay. Looking at the mental qi core Wei easily understood why his mental qi had rushed eagerly into danger.
It was a beautiful tapestry of power tempered by a fierce Will and Intent and brimming with endless potential. The longer Wei observed it the harder it was to hold back, and the faster he dissipated. He was now barely a wisp of mental qi held together by nothing but his sheer will.
The pulling sensation of the mirror was making itself known signaling that his time in the memory was ending and the core was too protected and complex for him to gain at his level of skill and power. He had to take something that would give him an advantage in the upcoming Blood Trials. Wei felt his mental qi recoil at taking anything other than the core but he forced it to focus on the plethora of mental qi techniques that filled the sky.
Reluctantly Wei felt himself focus on something other than the core. It was one of the strongest techniques, made clear by how it orbited the core and outshone almost all others in the sky. Wei focused every fiber of his being on the technique and pulled it towards him. It came to him quickly, almost eagerly. When it neared him, a single moment was all it took for him to unravel the defenses surrounding it and make it a part of him.
The process was easy and smooth, unlike the rest of his time in this precious memory, filled with difficulty and lack of control.
The technique glittered in the center of his being and Wei immersed himself in it for a handful of seconds and then drew back. Because of his nearly empty mental qi, he couldn’t examine it properly but the title was enough to let him know that his choice was a great one. The Thousand Fold Illusion was a wonderful technique and would be of great use to him.
I will have to return here one day no matter what. The more he experienced the vision, the surer Wei was that it was a precious inheritance left behind by the False God for those few worthy enough to take it. When the pull came from the mirror for the umpteenth time, Wei let it take him.
Wei returned to his body much smoother than he left it. He was immediately beset with pain. Gone was the temporary pain-free existence he had in the vision, all of his old aches and pains were more intense than he remembered—a result of his body having been in meditation for an unknown amount of time without moving. He ignored his discomfort instead, focusing inward. He could feel the Thousand Fold Illusion technique; a perfect copy of the False God’s shining brightly in his awareness, full of potential.
Satisfied, Wei opened his eyes only to freeze in shock and a bit of fear. in front of him cloaked in shadow with eyes glowing stood the Three Children.