{Records requested. Query = “Clearstar.”}
{… Authorization granted.}
{Beginning report…}
December 13
Nexus, Cloud Sector
“Daoist Clearstar, you are playing a dangerous game. Even immortals dare not alter the flows of Time.”
Clearstar stood on a large floating platform. Surrounding it were many other platforms, each with a group of people atop. Clearstar looked at the immortal that had addressed her, greeting it with a martial bow.
“Honored Immortal, I am willing to erase everything we have done now to give ourselves another chance. My own soul, and the souls of these practitioners around us are but a small price to pay to change the fate of our sector.”
This immortal was the least powerful of the three in the Cloud sector. Having barely enough power to constrain itself to the plane, the amount of power it could exhibit was only the fraction of it’s true power. Yet a boulder, no matter how small, dwarfs even the largest stone.
“The planes will suffer backlash, even centuries into the past. Our sector will be vulnerable to the others. Three immortals are not enough to defend against the hordes of foreigners if they hear that we crippled our own practitioners. And our border is already weak, how can you just let it die?”
Clearstar looked at the immortal, considering her plan for the last time. If the plan failed, her sector would be all but done for, with half of its defenders dead and their strongest cultivator destroyed. But if she succeeded, there could potentially be a complete shift in inter-sector relationships in just a few decades—a blink of time for cultivators whose lifetimes spanned centuries.
“Because,” Clearstar began, “The future we can see is not a future that we want. Our sector is destined for failure—this final gambit will accelerate it… only if it fails.”
“I cannot stop you.”
Clearstar nodded, but did not reply.
Then without a bang, but a whimper, the strongest cultivator in the Cloud sector crumpled.
The storm struck silently and without warning, battering the sector with enough force to sunder continents and empty seas. This was not a normal storm, but one stitched from space and time itself, the kind that could not be naturally formed but only induced by a simply superior existence.
Countless creatures perished as the sector’s membrane ruptured. Planets vanished and planes evaporated. Concentrated energies of chaos bubbled unfiltered into realty, warping everything it touched.
The soul of Daoist Clearstar watched it all happen from a bubble in space created by the Reversing formation. Clearstar could feel her cultivation regress, her Personal and Elemental Laws consumed as fuel for the formation.
With a flex of her will, the speed of the consumption slowed as profound symbols representing Clearstar’s very existence came into being. Shooting outwards from her external meridians, the symbols flashed into a spherical white-blue shield.
Projecting her spiritual sense outwards from the shield, her worst fears were realized as her sense touched upon the spirits of two other cultivators, two she recognized as spatial experts from the enemy sector— Sky.
Typically, two cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage posed no threat to an expert like Clearstar. But the circumstances here changed the whole game. Just another reminder to never become compliant, she thought to herself. I have to suppress them before the formation takes my Laws away. After that, it’s a defensive battle.
Knowing she couldn’t beat two spatial artists in a fight of speed, Clearstar sent out a pulse of suppressive force from her shield.
As the pulse of force shot out, the two spatial experts from the Sky sector felt the weight of her Law bearing down on them. They faltered for a moment, their attempts at spatial manipulation disrupted by the sheer power of Clearstar's spirit.
Seizing the opportunity she had bought, Clearstar unleashed a torrent of energy from the shield, manifesting as brilliant arcs of white-blue lightning that streaked towards the two cultivators.
The lightning stuck one squarely in the forehead, and the cultivator’s control on the space around him slipped. His spirit flickered for a moment, the lapse in concentration drawing him away from chaotic space and into the physical realms as a lodestone draws a needle. He let out a burst of chi, temporarily stabilizing space so that he could lock himself in position again.
The other quickly formed Daoist hand seals as he pooled chi around his external meridians. The pools transformed into miniature portals, which the cultivator impositioned between his body and the lightning bolts. They shot back towards Clearstar’s barrier, but it reabsorbed the chi, flashing white for a moment before settling.
Clearstar, seeing the effectiveness of her lightning, tried to form some again before realizing she no longer had the power to do so. The attack, which normally would barely have made a dent in her reserves had used over half—the remainder of which being drained quickly by the Space-Time reversal formation.
Exhaling a breath of chi, Clearstar fed the rest of her reserves into the formation while recycling her barrier. Pointing a finger, her chi shot out to join the symbol-filled mist that the barrier became. As her spatial bubble accelerated, the chi shaped the mist into eight bolts of pure blue chi.
Each spatial artist received four bolts. Four is an inauspicious number, of course, and the cultivators’ failed defense against the Law-infused chi attack proved inauspicious indeed. Failing to muster a satisfactory defense against Clearstar’s strike, the Sky sector’s space artists were forced to spend all their efforts on defensive techniques— and as their concentration slipped, both vanished from chaotic space, leaving Clearstar’s bubble alone.
She let out a breath of relief.
As she inhaled, she closed her eyes and diverted her attention inwards. There, she saw six bright Gates, miniature portals that formed the base of Clearstar’s cultivation. She saw three dim Gates that were the end results of all of Clearstar’s aspirations. The third and final realm… the realm of immortals.
Just one more Gate and I would achieve Hegemony. Clearstar shook her head and diverted her attention to the ones she had open. They were getting dimmer by the second, the energies that propped each Gate open being drained by the formation.
The sixth gate flickered and went dark as her Laws were drained completely. Then the fifth went dark also. Then Clearstar felt a tether snap as her nascent soul shattered and died, sucked in by the formation. Then, the energies of the formation surrounded her Cultivator’s Core and suppressed it until it had no more motion. The power from her fourth gate faded also.
The formation didn’t stop there, deconstructing the core itself. Melting the solid chi, then consuming the evaporated drops also. In short succession, the third and second mortal Gates fell like the three transcendent before it.
They were dark, but did not close completely. Fortunate— the process to open a Gate was much harder than it was to re-light one.
Feeling the bubble slow from her weakened spiritual sense, Clearstar opened her eyes. With only a single drop of liquid chi, she barely had the right to be called a practitioner, let alone a cultivator. As she saw the misty gray dome that her bubble had stopped next to, she turned the chi droplet into mist, before moving half of it into her palm. Forming a technique with this measly drop of chi, her palm strike made a crack in the dome that healed immediately after Clearstar made her way through.
Looking out at the world that raised her, she saw sights she had not seen for centuries. Towering buildings of steel and glass, the horns of cars and buses, the whistle of the wind through the telephone wires, and all the sounds of the city. Clearstar smiled.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Earth. Home at last.
{Continuing report…}
A man is standing in the air. His silver hair flows just like how it would in terrestrial winds. Extending a hand towards a gray misty barrier, he closes his eyes. After a moment, he frowns. He extends his perception outwards, away from a blue-green planet and its gray moon.
A wave of chi fast approaches. Then, the man directs his attention to a line of weakness in the barrier. Is someone trying to speed up my sector’s integration? Impossible. It would take an immortal, and a powerful one at that. No one powerful enough would dare leave their own sector— the risk of attack is too great— and chaotic space would tear them apart regardless.
He forms signs with his hands, shooting out a hundred and eight symbols of his personal Law. Each rune forms a connection with every other rune, and the orange light the connections produce expands into a formation. A drop of gray mist pours out of the formation and melds with the barrier, strengthening the torn spot. A moment later, he forms another sign, rearranging his Law projection. The lines of energy between each of the symbols change, forming another formation. The formation dissolves quickly, leaving a sphere of white-blue chi. The chi flies into the man’s waiting hand with a flex of his will.
Interesting. The chi is barely first level, but I sense mysteries of a peak-Law Stitching grandmaster within. The man places his thumb above his ring finger, straightening his index and middle fingers. He taps the sphere of chi slightly, absorbing it. He purifies the chi and releases it as a transparent mist.
Then suddenly, without any warning, it turns into a blue-white missile that shoots harmlessly through the gray barrier. The god narrows his eyes. Interesting.
{Continuing report…}
What good fortune, Clearstar thought, as she sensed some of her own chi a short distance away. A single flex of will turned it into a blue-white missile that she quickly reabsorbed. After cycling it, the chi was refined and turned liquid, quickly soothing Clearstar’s heart. She was not used to being without chi. These measly drops were nothing compared to her full power, but they seemed sufficient to prop open her Gates, so she would accept it.
Clearstar looked inwards, and seeing that she lacked energy to teleport, was forced to fly down from the skyscraper she stood on. I can afford this. Some quick meditation will open my Gates again, and I’ll become a peak mortal-level practitioner.
She stood on a platform of air ten feet above the busy sidewalk. A busy sidewalk, she noted. I… can’t believe I forgot about the mortals here. Seeing as she lacked chi to teleport, Clearstar sighed before teleporting anyway, into a dark alleyway with a few mortals.
A pair of bright spectral wings dimmed.
{Continuing report…}
A man is looking through the clouds. He follows a streak of blue-white chi as it shoots through the air, watching it intently. It descends into a mortal city and makes a beeline for a human woman standing on top of a tall structure. The man gets worried for a moment, but his worry is turned into apprehension as the bolt of qi is absorbed harmlessly. A practitioner? Strange. This sector isn’t to be integrated until winter solstice.
The man laughs. He watches as the woman uses a mediocre flying technique to descend from the structure. The mortals point and stare at the flying practitioner, which is expected. The man laughs again. Entertainment is hard to come by in this corner of the universe.
He stops laughing when the practitioner forms wings of soul energy behind her. He raises a brow when she rips space apart. He realizes that this practitioner must have been the one to meddle with the sector barrier.
The god frowns.
{Continuing report…}
Clearstar walked out of the alleyway, wearing jeans and a sweater. Two wallets filled with mortal money in her pocket, and a ‘liberated’ backpack on her back. It’d be much easier to blend in with the locals, now.
Three things to do. First, re-establish my connection with this sector’s Realms. Second, form my Core again. Third, find me.
Clearstar walked through the city streets, using a movement technique to leave the city in a matter of minutes. She burned some precious chi to do so, but it definitely was worth it. The faster she could find some large natural area, the faster she could access the massive source of chi that were the nine Realms.
Her reserves were almost empty before she could find a tall hill to meditate on. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it would do for the first Realm’s trial. Clearstar had constrained her spiritual sense, but now she let it loose. She assumed the lotus position at the hill’s apex, then focused her gaze inwards.
She saw a sea of white-blue misty chi, centered around a solitary drop of liquid chi. Early Foundation Establishment. Lucky the formation left me a few drops to play around with. She looked above the sea of chi and saw six dark gates. Open, but not open.
Clearstar, still focusing on the smallest of the six gates, sucked chi from everything her spirit could touch. From the air and the trees to the earth below, she breathed. A depressingly small amount of chi entered her sea, however. The chi density is pitiful. Well, to be fair, old Earth hasn’t been integrated into a sector yet. I’m lucky there’s any ambient chi at all.
The amount she gathered appeared in her sea, unfortunately not enough for another liquid drop. She would have to make do with only misty chi for the upcoming fight. Clearstar took a good look at the first dark Gate within her. It looked just like the others, except the darkness within the other Gates seemed… deeper. This one’s black seemed normal— the others looked more like the unending-abyss flavor of black. Clearstar centered herself, then projected her spirit inside the Gate.
Daoist Clearstar stood on a dark gray rock substance that stretched on as far as the eye could see.
{Continuing report…}
The man watches as the only practitioner on Earth enters a still-unopened Realm. Truly a strange case— the Expanse is not open at the moment, yet she appears there anyway, expecting a fight to gain access to it.
I’ll give her a fight, I suppose. He flexes his domain to create an weak illusory copy of himself. He shapes its features so that it is unrecognizable, then teleports it into the first Realm. Integration of this sector would begin in… roughly a week, local time, and a week of useless barren Realms would be no big deal.
The god watches the practitioner with interest.
{Continuing report…}
Clearstar readies herself as a spectral man appears a distance away. Hm, a humanoid guardian. She projected her spiritual sense, brushing over it. Body Refining… Copper. Odd. Physical Copper is the second level, and this is a first level trial. I guess the realm could sense my third level Foundation cultivation, and adjusted the trial accordingly. Clearstar sent out a missle of chi to test its defenses. This should be easy.
The missile streaked through the air, approaching the guardian. It pulled out a sword, and launching a flurry of blows at the missile, whittled it down to the misty chi which made it. It then launched itself forwards, closing the distance between the practitioners quickly.
Clearstar stayed in place, and formed hand signs from which six balls of blue flame came out. They floated behind her head like a halo. Seeing as the guardian still out of melee range, Clearstar raised both of her palms and formed countless miniscule dots of chi that filled the air around her. Star Spirits. She chanted under her breath, then the Star Spirits, now being controlled by Clearstar, began flitting around. They formed a thick half-sphere between her and the guardian.
The guardian, getting dangerously close began to twirl his sword, causing illusory blades to layer on top of each other wherever the sword passed. By the time Clearstar had finished with her techniques, the technique was already within the barrier formed by her technique. The layered illusory blades tore through the Star Spirits, but there were so many of them that the guardian’s technique’s power was exhausted by the superior practitioner’s barrier.
The spirits flooded in from all directions, implanting themselves onto the guardian’s armor in tiny explosions of white and blue chi. While she focused on directing her attacks, though, the guardian’s physical self charged straight into Clearstar’s mortal body. She went flying backwards, injured, but she absorbed a few of the Star Spirits to regain use of her physical self.
Spiritual cultivators like Clearstar boasted strong magical barriers, long-range offensive capabilities, and versatility at the cost of their physical strength and durability. Physical refiners were the majority in the early realms, due to the fact that they had a steeper power curve in the early stages. The massive increases to power and durability were threats to any spiritual cultivator of the same stage as them.
Clearstar cushioned her fall with a blanket of chi, and extended her perception to focus on the guardian charging forward forming another attack with illusory blades. It charges, knocks back the target using momentum, and layering illusory blades until ready for a kill. Not a bad strategy… but not enough to defeat me!
Clearstar cycled to regain her chi, then began chanting a spell. It was one of the most powerful ones she could execute at her current level, and should absolutely obliterate the guardian. She merged the few Star Spirits remaining into a larger chi shield, which she impositioned between her and the guardian.
She had just finished the spell when the guardian shattered her chi barrier. A flood of misty chi left her, and guided by her spell, formed a giant column of blue fire that struck the guardian dead center. Feeling her reserves dip significantly, she extended her perception into the Flame Strike’s radius to see the guardian, its armor destroyed and its scorching form disintegrating into orange energy that disappeared just as fast as it came into being.
The rocky fields of the Expanse vanish around Clearstar. She blinks, and finds herself in a strange room with no windows or doors. In front of her stands a man who radiates no power at all from her spiritual sense. He’s wearing a breastplate and a single-handed sword is hung at his wrist. His long silver hair is moving like he’s standing in a light breeze, but Clearstar can feel no wind.
The god frowns.
“Why are you here?”
{Continue topic? … Denied.}
{Report complete.}