The following two weeks passed by at a mostly monotonous pace. It wasn’t without benefit, though. Besides usual progression, Ace had managed to open two meridians at the same time. It wasn’t as challenging as he thought it would be; it really only required him to make two spiritual tendrils, effectively splitting his focus, and then latch on to them at the same time and bring them into different unopened meridians. And, yes, the pain was worse.
Furthermore, after he had acquired Darkness Qi for the first time, he gained a new metric to track his progress.
Core Qi Composition: Darkness - 50% Ice - 50%
Now, it was pretty evident what the stat meant, half his Qi was Ice, and the other half was Darkness. Considering Ice Qi's head start, one might wonder how Darkness Qi had caught up so speedily.
The answer was simultaneously complicated and uncomplicated. It was just easier for him when it came to Darkness. Whether it be taking control of it or even finding it. And while it did make sense because Darkness was his highest rated affinity. It also beckoned the question: why is Darkness his highest? For that inquiry, Ace had no answer, and he had the sneaking suspicion he would have no solid answers for a long while.
Anyway, here’s the stats.
Level: Meridian Opening: Progress 9.02%
Sub-Level: Qi Gathering: Progress .60%
(T1) Endurance: 6.5 > 7
Working out pays off, I guess.
Over the two weeks, Ace had taken up the task of exploring the mountain range with his brand new shrew claws in hand. He wasn’t planning on staying here forever after all. Annoyingly enough, adventuring was a slow process due to the cold, causing him to hardly make any meaningful discoveries to help his case.
He had also found and killed another shrew a short way from his cave. Honestly, the fight had been laughably easy compared to his first effort. Ace had let the thing leap past him a few times before he landed a critical blow. He had only received a long, skin-deep scratch on his left arm. It sort of seemed like once you fought one overindulgent shrew, the rest were the same. Not that I’m complaining, more food is always good.
With it, Ace made a much too-long cloak that fitted under his pajama shirt when he went outside.
The bad news was that he was depleted of spare sticks to build a fire, not including his battle sticks. So, he had preemptively cooked all of his meat in a big fire one night to prolong its expiration date.
But he would eventually be forced to move before his circumstances became dire. So, at the crack of dawn on a fine sunny day, Ace finally took a bath he had long desired in the crystalline pond. Then, he set out south, the only place where the mountains seemed too thin in density.
“I suppose it might be North actually…” Ace muttered. “Or the other two, not really sure.”
Anyhow, he wasn’t entirely undergeared, he’d donned his set of snow gear and carried a basket of cooked chubby shrew to go along with it. Now, as for what the basket was made of… well, that should be quite apparent.
Thankfully, Ace had mentally sketched out a rough idea of his journey across the mountain range, which mainly consisted of slowly heading down towards the river, which, as fate would have it, moved from North to South. During the later afternoons, he would search for respite in one of the many fissures on the mountainsides where he could wait out the night. Once morning came, he would continue onwards. As for the issue of water, well, the river was always an option if needed.
And, boom, idea perfection. There were assuredly zero things that could go wrong with such a robust plan.
Somethings gonna go to shit, I know it already.
----------------------------------------
“This is a disaster already.”
Bao Feng slapped an incoming fist away from a heavily plated warrior. Right after, he conjured an arc of blue lightning that eradicated the soldier's organs instantaneously.
Not even a second later, another Servant filled his place, brimming with bloodthirst to prove his worth. He swung his tremendous war hammer at him and formed a crater in the spot where Bao Feng had been standing.
The soldier dropped dead to the ground, a slit through his throat, precisely stabbing in between his iron chest plate and helmet. With his death, the air smelled of tangy blood more so than it already did.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Before the man even fell, Bao Feng had already killed five other Servants of the Northern Warlords, but the battle was just beginning. Racing toward the enemy frontline with his spear in hand, he joined in the raging war against his cultivator opponents. His squadron was struggling quite a lot today. In his eyes, it would not do for any more lives to be lost unnecessarily. For while Bao Feng was a stoic and composed man on the outside, he cared deeply about the lives of his brotherhood. And, on the battlefield, every warrior was bound by blood and steel to the lives of their fellow soldiers.
Bao Feng’s opponent, the enemy commander, noticed his approach and narrowed his eyes before shifting his stance to meet him head on. The man had a frame as wide as a boar with the eyes of a pig to match. All his body but his eyes and nose were covered in the bulk of bloody armor. He also wielded the traditional sword and shield combination. Distinguishing himself from the norm, though, was the telltale sign of extremely dense Metal Qi lingering all around his person.
Since Bao Feng had never met nor heard word of such a massive enemy cultivator in the past, he approached the fight with measured taciturn.
Both sides sent out probing strikes to gauge the seriousness of the situation. He quickly concluded that this was no typical cultivator, but one of the warlord’s few Body Attunement members. That conclusion was where the fight really began.
Bao Feng circulated his Qi in a complex pattern to summon a tornado of deadly thunder and shredding winds that blotted out the mystical sky islands looming above, turning it a smoky gray. Dense patches of ice and snow were carried up into the whirlwind along with still-live enemy soldiers who were shredded into ribbons of flesh upon being consumed by the thunderstorm. However, just as soon as he made a move, his opponent did so too. For a brief second, nothing seemed to happen… Out of nowhere, a colossal great sword made of steel erupted from the surface beneath Bao Feng’s boots. His eyes went wide, and he barely managed to leap back to avoid the severe attack due to his enhanced perception of Qi.
His opponent couldn’t keep up the offensive as he had his own issues to overcome, namely a giant coalescence of lightning and killing intent.
Turning away from Bao Feng, the sword broke into a plethora of sharp fragments that shot toward the ball of lightning. Not exactly the move he had anticipated. Usually, the best way to counter an attack like a Qi storm was to contain it in a dome of solid Metal Qi. Lightning and Wind Qi were notoriously known for being weak against rigid objects and materials.
“What is he doin–” Bao Feng stopped speaking mid-sentence, his look turning deathly serious.
Ordinarily, they would have just passed on through without doing much, but to the shock and dismay of everyone there that day, including Bao Feng, the shards cut through the storm, severing the very echos of Bao Feng’s will and intent that lingered in the Lightning Qi.
In mere seconds, the powerful hurricane force storm was reduced to nothing but the air it used to occupy. The mutilated corpses of dead soldiers dropped to the ground with a clatter of chinking armor and weapons.
Bao Feng’s men lost focus on their mission for a brief moment. He could see the disbelief in their posture, an unsettled demeanor, and their unsure looks at him spoke volumes. Not once, in the tens upon tens of campaigns he had led in the Desolate Mountains, had his battalion ever doubted him as much as now. The worst part was that he didn’t blame them. There was no hope against a foe like this one.
Bao Feng whispered. “The Will of Steel,” His pupils dilated as he realized. “None of these people are with the Warlords. Not even their most acclaimed leaders command such a niche power.”
His face paled, and the true hopelessness became clearer immediately as the facts hit him. In the middle of the battlefield, his elite battalion’s members faltered against their foes. It wasn’t because of the brute strength and unyielding resolve the Northmen usually displayed or anything like that. No, they were simply better, not just in power, but with technique and cohesiveness on top of it. More so, not a single warcry sounded out from one of the massive enemy combatants. Further adding to the eerie truth. He had been fooled. And on this day, all his men and himself would pay with their lives.
Bao Feng glared at the enemy leader and, in return, received a pitying smile as if saying, it took you that long?
He grimly looked at the man. Having decided to do the unthinkable, he yelled across the frost-bitten warzone. “We are all going to die here,” His grimace turned into a manic smile. “Including you.”
There were two cardinal sins of a cultivator. One, never abandon your humanity. Two, never detonate your core. The former was a common occurrence for many budding cultivators. Losing your character and morals was not rare when the average cultivator could live twice as long as the average man or woman. The latter, though, not so much. Generally speaking, only highly advanced cultivators could voluntarily shatter their core, and Bao Feng was one such cultivator. The breaking of a core would release magnitudes of destruction that could be felt for up to a few miles coming from someone like him.
His adversary noticed his intentions immediately, and he scrambled to get to him in time. “Are you Crazy!? You’ll kill us all,” He screamed, propelling himself forward as fast as he could.
It was too late; however, Bao had already pulled the trigger, and all of the Qi in his core was converted into the physical manifestation of the elements, Lightning, Wind, and a small but destructively impactful bit of true Storm Qi.
“I’m sorry, everybody,” A tear rolled down his cheek.
His core split evenly down the middle. The last thing he saw before he was claimed by darkness was the sight of pure obliteration, catastrophe, and devastation. It was a storm like no other. Arcs of golden lightning rained down on the warriors below, disintegrating there very essence, massive tornados of cobalt lightning and earth rending winds consumed the landscape, and with it came the reaping of lives. The only gratifying sight was the visage of the boarish man's terrified face as the God of Death took his toll.