CHAPTER

16

IN THE CAVE

DAOJUE

—∞—

The Ring burned.

It sat wrapped around the forefinger of Daojue’s right hand, the hand with which Daojue held his spear as he ran. Daojue felt himself being pulled forward, and it was the Ring that pulled him.

It was as if he was a spear thrown, with the Ring as its head, and his body as its shaft. Where the spearhead went, the rest of it followed, and it was so that Daojue allowed the Ring to guide him through the aberrant crystalline bodies that pretended at life and took on the likeness of plants.

Daojue had felt not even the barest flicker of hesitation when the Ring began pulling him in a different direction a short while prior. It mattered not that the Ring had never before shown signs of chromality besides the invulnerability associated with entities at a higher realm of existence. All that mattered was that the Ring had once been his master’s, and that his master had found it important enough to employ his dying breath to bequeath it upon him.

Ever since, Daojue had waited for the day the Ring would reveal its purpose, and it appeared that the day was finally at hand. He did not know what the Ring could be drawn to in a place as vilely unnatural as the Gleamstone Forest, but there was not even a semblance of doubt in his heart that his master’s memento wouldn’t lead him astray.

Just as Daojue followed the Ring, Meiyao and Jieyuan followed Daojue; only, the pair was currently engaged in meaningless, aimless chattering. Daojue kept track of their prattle, but so far that was proving to be a pointless exercise, with his two teammates wasting breath on useless conjunctures, discussing matters they had no power or control over. It was a welcome improvement, however, over the way Meiyao had been badgering him for answers earlier.

What did it matter to her where he was headed and why they should follow him? It was her choice to follow, and she would inevitably learn their destination once they arrived at it. Jieyuan, at least, had had the sensibility to recognize the futility of his questioning and adopt a stance of silence.

Bathed in the ghastly radiance of facsimile crystal flora, Daojue ran, turning and reorienting himself as the Ring indicated, until he came to a stop in front of a sprawling wall of gleamstone. By his estimate, it stood two hundred and fifty feet tall and stretched in both directions beyond his line of sight. Above it, the Gleamstone Forest seemed to continue. It was a cliff, then.

Meiyao came to a halt beside him, cast her eyes up at the cliffside, and rambled, “That’s the Gleamstone Flaw. We’re at the boundary between the Fifth and Sixth Rings.”

Daojue did not know who Meiyao was addressing. He did not care for the geography of the Gleamstone Forest; he had not heard Jieyuan manifesting an interest in it, either. This was not, however, the first time Meiyao shared trivial knowledge unprompted, and Daojue suspected it would not be the last.

Meiyao directed her gaze to him and demanded, “So what’s the plan now?”

As always, it boggled Daojue’s mind why someone would voice a question when all that stood between them and the answer they sought was but a smidgen of patience.

Ignoring the inane inquiry, Daojue lingered in place for a moment longer to confirm that the cliff was indeed where the Ring was pulling him toward, then approached the wall and aura-lashed his fullgreaves to its surface. His perspective shifted as the cliffside was repositioned to lay below him, and he proceeded to run up its length. Jieyuan’s and Meiyao’s footsteps sounded behind him as they followed. Their drivel had yet to come to an end; now they were wondering what they were doing here.

Daojue was midway through the cliff when he realized the Ring was not pulling him directly upward; instead, it led him to a particular point in the cliffside that, to Daojue’s eyes, seemed to be no different from the swathes of gleamstone surrounding it.

Upon reaching the approximate location and taking another step forward, however, Daojue found his right foot sinking into what should have been a stretch of solid stone, as if only the image of it was there. His right foot touched nothing but empty air as it disappeared into the stone, and it was only his left foot, which remained aura-lashed to the cliff, that kept Daojue standing steadily in place.

Daojue immediately recognized it for what it was: an illusory field. He pulled his foot up, bending his knee, and his fullgreave resurfaced from the illusion. Jieyuan and Meiyao halted at his side. Meiyao seemed to be at a rare loss for words; Jieyuan, however, saw fit to fill the silence with frivolities. “An illusion?”

Obviously it was an illusion; what else could it possibly be? Daojue lowered his foot back into the illusory stretch of stone, angled himself so that the sole of his fullgreave was in contact and aligned with the wall inside, then aura-lashed that foot to the unseen wall, perpendicular to his current position. His perspective shifted again, and he leaned his body forward as he fell up through the illusory wall.

The rest of his body passed through the illusion harmlessly; and Daojue found himself standing just past the illusory wall, at the lip of what had revealed itself to be a cave entirely made out of gleamstone. The first thing to draw his attention was the gleamstone statue that served as the primary source of light within the cave.

Glowing dimly with a soft violet light, the statue was positioned near the center of the cave, and it depicted a woman sitting with her legs crossed. Resting sideways on the woman’s lap was a spear, and Daojue felt the Ring’s burn heighten as he laid his eyes upon the weapon.

Much like the statue of the woman, the spear appeared to be made of gleamstone. It was a thin, sleek weapon, spanning over eight feet with a narrow blade at its end. Unlike the statue, however, the crystal comprising the spear lacked a distinctive tinge, and as the violet glow radiating from it touched the body of the spear, it was refracted in a thousand different shades. The floor, walls, and ceiling of the cave shone with a barely visible glow, reflecting the statue’s light much like the spear, albeit to a lesser extent.

Beside the statue was a small golden sphere. Now that Daojue was inside the cave, he could feel the inscribed field maintaining the illusion outside, and the sphere seemed to be the field-focus it was anchored to. He focused his soulsense on the inscribed field. Analyzing its properties, he found that it was composed of an illusory field overlaid with a surveillance field.

Meiyao and Jieyuan surfaced from behind the illusion. Daojue made to approach the spear; it was clearly what the Ring had been drawing him towards this entire time.

A hand grabbed onto his shoulder. “Wait. That’s…”

He glanced backward. It was Meiyao’s hand that had stopped him; she was staring at the statue.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Daojue gave Meiyao a moment to provide a reason for restraining him. She failed to do so, and so he shook off her grasp and resumed striding toward the statue. He came to another stop, however, as he came close enough to perceive the statue and the spear with his soulsense.

In stark contrast with the fifth-sign Redsoul presence of the cave itself, the statue’s spirit-shadow was at tenth-sign Redsoul. That, however, was not what had curbed his advance; it was the spear that had done so. He could not soulsense it. Even though it was clearly made of gleamstone, the spear appeared to his soulsense as a mundane body, bereft of chromality.

Daojue clenched his hands. While he may not know all of the Ring’s reasons for leading him here, he now knew at least one of them.

He split and sheathed his metal spear, crossed the remaining distance between him and the statue, then crouched before it and closed his hands around the shaft of the spear. The Ring burned even hotter, and Daojue knew then that it was indeed the spear that the Ring had meant for him to find.

Rising back into a standing position, Daojue held the spear out in front of him and gave it a closer inspection. To his surprise, he found that the spear felt comfortable in his grasp. It did not repulse him in the way gleamstone always did. The insidious, encroaching sense of abnormality and foulness he had come to associate with the material was not to be found in the spear, as if it had been purified of it.

The crystalline shaft lacked the smoothness of metal he had grown used to, but it was solid and firm in a way that the body of his metal spear felt short of. He adjusted his grip on it.

“Gleaming End,” Meiyao said. “That’s Gleaming End.”

She was a few steps behind him, her eyes fixed on the spear. “Or at least I think it is. It was supposed to be a tenth-sign Redsoul spear, but it’s a perfect match for the description I’ve heard of it. And…” She turned to regard the statue. “That should be Protector Yuanzhi.”

Jieyuan stood on her other side. He had also been staring at the spear Daojue now knew to be called Gleaming End, but at Meiyao’s words, he turned to the statue that, based on what Meiyao had just revealed, might have been a person once. Daojue likewise returned his attention to the crystallized woman and narrowed his eyes at it in study.

It was indeed unlike any other gleamstone entity Daojue had come across so far. Its outline was perfectly smooth, and it was entirely devoid of flaws, from the features of the woman’s face to the folds and wrinkles on her robes pooling around her on the floor of the cave. It had not occurred to Daojue previously what a statue might have been doing in the cave, and now that he pondered the matter, he suspected that Meiyao had likely touched upon the truth.

“She went missing over a hundred years ago, taking Gleaming End with her,” Meiyao said. “Grandfather… He often talks about her. She was his aunt. Supposedly the most talented Liangshibai after the clan’s founder, the only other amethyst-blood in the history of the Liangshibai Clan.”

Jieyuan looked warily between Meiyao and the crystallized corpse. “And she ended up like that how?”

“I… I have no idea. I’ve never heard of someone turning into gleamstone.” Meiyao wore a deep frown. “But… it might have to do with why—or rather, how—Gleaming End isn’t at Redsoul anymore.”

Prying her eyes off the crystallized corpse, Meiyao shifted her attention to the spear in Daojue’s hands.

Jieyuan did so as well, stepping closer as he eyed Gleaming End with a glint in his eye. “Orangesoul, do you think?” Jieyuan’s tone and visage betrayed a burning interest. Daojue also gleaned in his teammate an undercurrent of greed, but he had a sufficiently comprehensive grasp of Jieyuan’s character to deem Jieyuan acting on it to be improbable.

“Maybe.” Unlike Jieyuan, Meiyao did not approach, but she still scrutinized the spear. “Probably. But… That doesn’t make sense. Gleaming End is a refined construct, not an inscribed gear. You can increase a construct’s stratum by over-refining it with a higher-stratum material, but only if it’s in the same realm. You can’t refine something out of materials at different realms… Or at least that’s what I thought. But…”—her eyes flitted back to the crystallized woman—“this has to be Gleaming End.”

“Well, regardless of what happened to it, whatever it is now, it’s not at Redsoul,” Jieyuan said. He glanced back at Meiyao. “Which is all that really matters right now, because that means we’ve got something we can use on Weiming. Do you think she can find us here?”

“Only if she can somehow directly track us, and I don’t see how she could do so. So no, I’d say she can’t. To start with, we wouldn’t have found this place if it weren’t for Daojue.” She rounded on him. “Actually, how did you find this place, anyway?”

Daojue elected to remain silent. To answer Meiyao’s question, he would have to disclose the existence of the Ring, and he trusted neither his teammates with the knowledge of its existence. His clan had already paid the price for misplacing trust and sharing secrets. Daojue would not repeat that mistake.

When it became clear to Meiyao he had no intention of answering, her questioning look gave way to a glare; Daojue bore it unflinchingly.

“What about a divination ritual?” Jieyuan cut in between them. “I’ve heard about those. Could she use one of those to find us?”

Meiyao held her glare for a few moments longer before she turned to face Jieyuan. “No. They’re too costly and imprecise, at least Redsoul ones. We should be safe here. The sect spent decades scouring the Gleamstone Forest for Protector Yuanzhi, and nobody ever came across this place.”

She gave Daojue another pointed look; he ignored it.

“All right.” Jieyuan nodded slowly. “All right. That’s good. It’s a start. But we’ll have to get out eventually. Any ideas?”

Daojue returned his attention to Gleaming End as Meiyao and Jieyuan discussed theories and possibilities. He found it pointless. The path ahead was clear. Now that he had a higher-realm weapon, the inner elder was no longer a threat, and if she did not come to him, Daojue would go to her. Either way, he would put an end to what she had started.

The Ring still burned hot around his forefinger, and Daojue took that as an indication that there was something else he was still supposed to do. He regarded the spear thoughtfully, then entered Heavenly Communion and chanted, “Resolve.”

Meiyao whipped her head over to him, breaking off from her conversation with Jieyuan. “Wait, are you trying to bond it? Did you— You can’t use an attuning hymn on something at a higher realm. It’s pointless—”

Meiyao cut herself off as Gleaming End started glowing.

Even though he did not show it, Daojue felt surprised himself. Meiyao was right; his bonding attempt should not have worked, and he had known so, but he had seen fit to try regardless as he had not been able to think of anything else the Ring could want from him. It was not the glowing, however, that he was surprised at, but the presence he felt reaching toward him from within Gleaming End. It then manifested in his mind beside the ephemeral presence of the Heavens.

Chroma was being sacrificed from his soulprism, which meant the bonding ritual had taken effect. However, where bonding normally happened instantaneously, chroma kept continuously vanishing from his soulprism as he felt Gleaming End’s presence grow more tangible in his mind.

He recalled, then, his master telling him about ego gears, chromal gears that had developed a mental aspect. He also recalled his master mentioning how all ego gears were at least at Greensoul.

The Ring’s heat heightened further still, and Daojue felt Gleaming End’s presence fully solidify in his mind. The Ring cooled, chroma ceased to vanish from his soulprism, and Daojue found Gleaming End was now perceptible to his soulsense.

Its spirit-shadow was not outlined in green, blue, or violet, however, but in first-shade orange, which meant it was not at Greensoul or above, but at first-sign Orangesoul.

Daojue stared, uncomprehending, at the Orangesoul ego gear he was now bonded to. He scoured his memories for each instance of his master mentioning ego gears, but just as with all matters pertaining to greensouls and above, his master had seldom broached the subject, and when he did do so, it was always only in the most general of terms. It was possible his master simply hadn’t seen fit to mention possible exceptions.

Gleaming End’s presence remained in his mind in a way reminiscent of an active mind-link. It was not thoughts, however, that came from the ego, but a vaguer sense of feelings and ideas. Daojue attempted to decipher them, and he got the impression of something prodding him, as well as something warm and shimmery. Curiosity… and affection? Gleaming End’s body shook slightly in his grasp, moving of its own accord, and Daojue felt another feeling come from it. Confirmation. Agreement.

“Did you just bond it?”

Meiyao was standing right in front of him now, looking back and forth between him and the spear with her eyes significantly widened. Beside her, Jieyuan wore an expression that was almost opposite hers. Jieyuan’s eyes were narrowed, and he appeared thoughtful.

Once again, Daojue opted to remain silent.

“No, no. This is… This is ridiculous. And you can’t just ignore your way out of this,” Meiyao said, stepping forward. “How the rot did you just do that?”

Ignoring her, Daojue returned his attention to Gleaming End’s presence. Before he could study it more thoroughly, however, the Ring grew searingly hot and pulled his hand away. Daojue immediately turned around, and he saw the inner elder Weiming step into the cave through the illusory wall.

Daojue didn’t stop to think as he threw his body forward and launched Gleaming End at the woman.