Chapter 5: Discovering the Cause

The air was still and the sky was full of mist. Alone in this empty area Wei slowly attempted to calm his mind. He carefully considered where he could be? Clearly this had happened because of the coin. But what was 'this'? As he contemplated deeply, an incessant sensation slowly emerged that completely disrupted his thoughts. It was a low hum that seemed to get constantly louder until he couldn't even hear himself think. As Wei tried to get the humming to stop he saw a dim flickering light thousands of feet below him. I thought there was nothing on the ground except dirt. And yet this light appears just as this strange humming intensifies. I don't believe in such coincidences. I should go and check what it is. At the moment, its only mildly worrying but who how bad it will get in the future. I have to get down there.

Having gathered himself Wei adjusted his body into what he thought was a proper position for flying. All the cultivators I’ve read about fly on swords. But since I have no flying sword, I guess I’ll have to fly without one. He slowly tilted his body head facing downwards and prepared to fly. Only when he was about to fly down, did he realize that he was feeling fine. His breathing was normal, his bones were not aching, and his limbs were feeling fine. He was well! He didn't feel sick! Regardless of where he was, Wei knew it was now his favorite place in the world. A heaven on earth, where his sickness couldn't affect him at all. Where he was free and could do what he wanted. Just as he was rejoicing he had a rude awakening. In his moment of happiness the cause of the humming seemed to have sensed his inaction and redoubled its efforts. The humming in his head doubled and was now a sharp keening wail. This is becoming too much to endure.  Without hesitation Wei dived.

As he dropped through the air at a frightening speed Wei realized that he still hadn’t tried to fly despite being able to, sure he had floated a little and was now free- falling towards the ground. But now he wanted to make himself fly, no he needed to fly! With a small burst of burst of speed, it happened, he was flying. It was exhilarating. He could feel the wind as he rushed through space hurtling towards the flickering lights. This is true freedom. Flying through the sky with no sickness and no worries. I feel like everything will be great. As he absentmindedly headed towards the lights Wei subconsciously thought about how to move around in flight.

It was ridiculously easy, with a single thought his body adjusted itself and he could move in any way he pleased. It was like suddenly discovering a new body part, a bit awkward at first, but it quickly becomes effortless. He felt like the air was where he belonged, his domain. He was like a bird-, no he was the wind itself. As he zipped through the air twirling and diving he saw that the ground was quickly becoming increasingly large and so he reduced his speed, slowing down until he was floating once more. As he got closer to the ground he was finally close enough to see what the lights were. As he squinted his eyes Wei couldn’t believe the sight in front of him. Still not believing it he persisted in staring for at least five minutes. Seeing the same sight persist he sighed “How the hell did this happen.” In front of him was an exact copy of himself kneeling down, naked and pierced through with two dozen shiny black chains as thick as tree trunks. The final and weirdest fact was that the him who was kneeling down was a giant. A towering thirty meter tall giant that was struggling to move. Its huge figure was speared through with the chains and tied to the earth, forced into a kneeling posture.

As Wei looked at the kneeling giant he felt incomparably sad. Why does this giant look like me? What does it represent?

At this moment, several things quickly became clear. The lights were flickering in response to the calling out of the giant who was making the hummin noise. Who is this giant who looks like me? And what is he doing here? Wei slowly landed on the ground, a small puff of wind rising outwards from his position.

Walking across the barren earth towards the giant. Wei noticed the complete lack of sound. Even the wind didn’t make a sound as it brushed across his face. With a slow gait Wei continued walking towards the giant until finally he reached it. Wei looked up at the giant that shared a likeness with him and studied it carefully. Although he felt every fiber of his being urging him to try to alleviate the giant’s pain and free it, he absolutely wouldn’t until he knew what it was and what would happen once it was free.

“I am you,” a rough voice rasped. Wei looked at the giant even more intensely. It can speak, but how? There are chains stabbing through even its mouth. As if reading his mind, the giant spoke again “I am speaking to your mind,”. “Who are you?” Wei asked curiously. “I am a representation of your physical body, and the reason I am in this state is because of your illness,” the giant stated.

Hearing this Wei immediately shot up flying up until he was eye-level with the giant. He noticed that its eyes were a blood-red, a sharp contrast to his grey. “Are you telling me you know the cause of my illness? What is it? How did I get it? How do you know what you know if you’re just a representation of my body? Where am I? Who is—. “SILENCE,” yelled the giant quickly interrupting Wei’s barrage of questions. Wei quickly quieted down, although slightly miffed at being effectively shut up by his ‘body’ Wei reminded himself not to piss off his ‘body’ which seemed to hold most if not all of the answers at the moment.

“I am sorry, please continue,” Wei urged the giant with a look of apology on his face. The giant looked at him searchingly and then seemingly appeased it started to speak.

“First and foremost, all the knowledge I possess is a result of a leftover wisp of memory that contained vast knowledge. However, they were very fragmented and about eighty percent of the information is missing. The only things remaining are common facts about cultivation and some odd skills and random bits of knowledge. We are now in your mindscape, a haven full of your mental qi. I am but a wisp of consciousness that can dissipate at any time. The memories appeared when these chains stabbed into me. From what I can tell this occurred just after your birth and is the cause of your illness.

Wei silently listened as the giant explained how the chains were made out of mental qi- the energy of the mind and how since Wei had such a large amount it had overpowered his body developing his illness which was due to the severe lack of balance between Wei’s mental energy and his feeble body. Apparently, every being that could think possessed a certain amount of mental qi, and the stronger the being the more mental qi their body could contain. Nevertheless, this didn’t mean that very strong cultivators all had strong mental qi in fact most cultivators always had just about as much true qi as mental qi. The problem arose when either the true qi or mental qi vastly overpowered the other. This led to ‘complications’. Too much more mental than true qi resulted in a weak body. Too much more true than mental qi meant a weak mind. Both were fatal for cultivators and so they maintained a type of equilibrium.

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And yet despite not being a cultivator why was Wei’s mental qi so vast without cultivating it.

Wei intended to find out.

Wei quickly bombarded the giant with more questions about cultivation but he was quickly stonewalled, apparently the giant didn’t want to harm him with its ‘incomplete knowledge’ and urged him to do his own research as soon as he was able. Wei wholeheartedly agreed. As if I would listen to this giant bound up in chains who looks just like me! It’s totally suspicious. I’ll look into this when I start cultivating. But for now, let me see if there’s even a tiny bit of truth to what he’s saying.

Slowly calming himself Wei extended his ‘mind’ finding that it was just as easy to access as when he was flying. With a slow exaggerated gesture, he pointed his hand toward a distant piece of land and slowly raised it upwards. Rise. Closing his eyes Wei realized that he could feel his mental qi move according to his will and surging toward the area that he pointed to. The mental qi conglomerated at the point but took no further action. Wei tried to urge it to move spurring it on but to no avail. Sighing he opened his eyes. The sight that greeted him was slightly surprising but also within his expectations.

A large cloud of thin mist hung in the air surrounding the area he had sent his mental qi at.  So, this mist is mental qi huh. And my mental qi while much more than it should be for an average mortal isn’t enough to reshape my mindscape. Wait a minute, what about that silvery mist that came into contact with the coin. It should be much stronger than my normal mental qi, let’s see if I can control it!  Wei quickly shot off into the sky towards the silver coin. A few moments later he was close enough that he could see the heavenly treasure in all its glory. It floated still in the sky like a miniature sun, slowly revolving while pulling in small amounts of mental qi. Already a small extremely dense cloud of mist had taken shape around it. However instead of drawing more mental qi to itself it seemed to be constantly revolving the same silvery mental energy with no visible change occurring.

What’s so special about the mental energy that has turned silver? Let me give it a try!

Without any hesitation Wei targeted the silvery mental qi with his mind and pulled. The silvery mental qi came flowing towards him like liquid lightening, and slowly coiled around his body in a manner reminiscent of a snake. The silvery mental qi which he subconsciously started calling refined mental qi had answered to his summons just as swiftly as the rest of his mental qi. The only difference was the small almost negligible resistance he felt from the silver coin which he made a note of to look into later.

Satisfied that he could control the refined mental qi just as well as the normal variant Wei quickly repeated the entire procedure and tried to use the refined mental qi to make changes to his mindscape.

This time there was a reaction but not the one he was hoping for.

Instead of a tall towering pillar of earth emerging from the ground, the only thing the refined mental qi could accomplish was making the targeted area rumble like an earthquake was about to occur there.

So, it is stronger. But by how much? And how much stronger can the Heavenly Treasure make it?

Although Wei didn’t know the answer to any of these questions the curiosity just gave him more reason to find out the answers to all of his questions. Not to be distracted Wei quickly flew back towards the giant who was still in his kneeling position looking as tragic as ever.

“It seems that most of what your saying is true, and I thank you for giving me the information that you did. If what you’re saying about the chains is true I need to not only to find out why I have such powerful mental energy. But also, when will my body be strong enough to get rid of these chains. Perhaps at that time you will be free. Even many cultivators don’t have a sentient representation of their body I bet. So, if you are telling the truth, know that I will help you.” Wei promised the giant solemnly.

The giant said nothing seemingly contemplating his words finally it replied in a rumbling voice.

“OK.”

Now that that’s taken care of I better hurry back to the forest. Who knows what’s happened to my body while I’m here exploring my mind. I better hurry, it would be such a shame to die - killed by cultivators or wild beasts before even embarking on the path of immortality.

But first.

Setting his eyes on the silver coin Wei flew rapidly towards the heavenly treasure.  At first, I was too unattuned to mental qi, but now I can hear the coin calling to me for a great purpose. I can feel it, an utter certainty that I need to hold it! That that will determine whether or not I can even exit my mindscape among other wonderful things. I guess at my level - as a mortal I shouldn’t have a speck of a chance entering my mindscape. I definitely need the coin to exit it!

Stopping right outside the cloud of refined mental qi that surrounded the coin. Wei waved his hands in a splitting gesture and the thick cloud split, leaving open a proper path for Wei to tread. Slowly drifting forth Wei grew ever closer to the coin, and just as he was about to reach for it. It flew straight towards his forehead just like the previous time. Wei only had a single instant to think not again before his vision went dark.

Unlike the last time instead of an instant change Wei felt himself merging with the coin – this time for real, truly and irrevocably. He could feel his mind and even soul slowly changing having something new added onto it. And he accepted it with no qualms. He could feel that whatever or whoever this coin was it complemented him very well and would bring him a great deal of good fortune.

Good fortune, hmmm. Does destiny really exist and can you manipulate it? Never mind, thoughts for another time. I can tell the change is about to be complete. Then I will probably reappear in the Kingdom of Chen. When I do, I have to get out of the ancient forest. And fast. Before the cultivators appear, if they catch up to me it could mean trouble. Who knows how much they know or what they’ll do.

The transformation slowly drew to a close and Wei was mentally readying himself, planning what route was fastest and how he would get there. When suddenly he started seeing disjointed visions. The visions were clearly the memories or recollections of a powerful cultivator. Huge battles, formidable opponent, beautiful lovers and vast powers all flit by before Wei’s eyes some too fast to even register. The one that stood out the most was one of a vast tree that seemed to be eternal. It shone with a metallic luster and with a single glance Wei was obsessed with finding out what it was.  

This must be a great divine tree or something equally as impressive.

 But before he could he was bombarded by the rawest emotion of the coin. Ambition. A thirst for power, knowledge and wealth. A desire to obtain all within the heavens and earth.

To learn all secrets and possess all heavenly treasures. This ambition interwove with Wei’s thirst for knowledge and awakened Wei’s almost nonexistent ambition.

From this moment Wei knew his ambitions were greater than all others. No matter if it was arrogant or not he didn’t care. You couldn’t have this sort of ambition without being arrogant.

Wei felt that he wouldn’t ever be satisfied. Nothing he could think of could satisfy his mad desire for everything.  But I will try, I will try to attain all that I want and it all starts at the awakening ceremony. I will definitely awaken as a cultivator and then my journey can begin!

It was an all-encompassing feeling and Wei experienced very vividly. After an undetermined amount of time. Wei slowly opened his eyes.  

I’m back! I’m in the ancient forest. I made it.

 Wei smiled.  He felt incomparably happy at this moment.

At this moment, the dark forest felt brighter than the morning sun.