The shockwaves from the clash could still be felt but with each step that he took toward the massive barrier, the shockwaves became muted. It was massive, completely obstructing his field of view. Like a mountain range.
With each step, the distance shrunk, and the Qi within the air started becoming more active, and more chaotic. It was a sign signifying the constant fights, big and small, that broke out outside of the Grand Formation.
The visibility started coming back and then he saw another wondrous scene. The barrier acted as a canvas and painted on it was a forest lit with lights of all colors. A wondrous, breathtaking beauty that chased away the darkness.
The clouds had loomed over this vast frozen land for many years. Despite setting out in all directions for past decades, he had never escaped their bounds. The world had been cast into pitch-black darkness as it had been stripped away of even the stars that twinkle in the sky.
***
Right in front of him stood the vast forest. It circled the Grand Formation, its size as difficult to imagine as the size of the barrier itself. It charmed him every time he looked at it. It was otherworldly. He shook it off, suppressed and then buried the feelings ever deeper.
There was only one thing he needed to look at: his goal, nothing else.
The Qi in the air became increasingly more tumultuous. It affected the balance he had achieved with much struggle. The external Qi resonated with the Qi within his body. Provoked it, endorsing it to get out of control. The Qi started wrestling, trying to run wild as it shook off all of his attempts in stabilizing it.
His feeble state made matters worse.
It had been nearly two years. During this time he had been patiently enduring the pain. It was a constant battle, a constant fight to keep his sanity. Now even his Dao was reaching its limit. He could not endure for much longer, nor could the core within his heart.
He needed medical assistance, urgently. He needed to return to the settlement, as fast as possible.
‘Sprint…’
Fast and quick, he decided. If he continued moving at his current pace, this forest would end up being his grave. The forest was filled with danger at every step with monsters and specters roaming all around, there were little to no spaces to hide in.
***
Roars reverberated as the monster fought amongst themselves, even attacking the specters if they had the numbers for it.
His Qi was pulled back in, all the Qi pathways tightly closed. It helped in getting the Qi under control but more importantly, he needed to make sure not a single strand of Qi could leak. Any leakage would be detected swiftly and then he would be attacked from all sides.
His head was always moving, keeping track of everything. He needed a place where he could safely harmonize the external and internal Qi.
***
Inhale
Exhale
All of the oxygen pellets had been used up. The helmet, despite having gone through the rough treatment, was still working. It purified enough oxygen that he would not die of suffocation. It did not make each breath any less of an ordeal.
He endured. He was good at that.
Inhale
Exha–Cough!Cough!!Cough!
Spasms overtook the body while Qi deviation caused the internal Qi to run amok as his control slipped. Muscles were torn apart, and the organs were on the verge of rupture. The heart started pumping blood at high speed while his core, despite its cracked state, spewed out dense Qi at greater intensity.
His control over the Qi worsened and it started affecting the puppetry that he was performing. Sometimes he would stumble and on other instances, he would not stop when he wanted. At times his balance would go haywire. Despite the dire circumstances, he did not feel any despair.
He had faced many adversities in life.
He tried to use his Dao but the core reacted, and a terrible feeling loomed over his mind. It stopped him in his tracks.
Any more pressure and the core would explode. It had been running passively all this time which had allowed him to survive until now. He could use the Dao actively, he had gleaned that much, but the core would not survive for long.
‘Another way…another way…’
‘!!!’
Refined cores appeared on his palms, the last few he had remaining. He stared at them and then closed his eyes. He went through all the scenarios that he could think of, trying to find one where he could get back to the settlement within the least amount of time without doing this. He started feeling light, his vision swaying but despite the many, many simulations he had performed mentally, he could not find another path.
He tried sitting but fell.
He wanted to get up but the Qi would not listen. His body had long since become useless, unable to move, unable to react. Though his body was dead his mind was clear and awake. He finally made the decision.
It would be suicidal but he would do it. Now right away though, he wanted to get as far into the forest as possible. For that, he needed to get the Qi under control.
The Qi wreaked havoc, seriously damaging the already tense Qi paths and rupturing some. He imposed his steel will on the Qi. It only forced a masculine amount to stabilize but it gave him something to work with.
First, his fingers twitched, then they moved. It was crude, containing not a speck of human finesse. Nonetheless, his useless body moved.
Another fit of spasms occurred in the body and his organs were put under even greater pressure. Pain flooded his mind as the bones started creaking.
***
His body trembled, shook, and then he stood up. The sounds faded away as his control over the Qi returned. He had harmonized his internal Qi with the external environment. It would reduce the chances of Qi deviation suddenly occurring again.
A Way Through. It was a suicidal technique for anyone except Inero-ie. His experience and the Dao made sure he survived the after-effects each time he was forced to use it. But despite the massive consequence, it allowed him to escape alive even in the direst of instances.
He had no fear of using it. Either he would successfully survive after using it or he would die. Either he would fulfill the oath and survive or he would die trying.
He would be happier if had died.
A Way Through. The thought behind this technique was simple. Forcefully fill the core with as much Qi as possible, and keep on adding Qi without allowing any leakage until such a large amount was present inside the core that the Qi underwent a qualitative change. Massive amounts of Qi at high density would be available on success. The theory was simple, acting on it much much harder.
There was no leeway for mistakes, not even a single one. Slightest of the inaccuracy and core would explode along with the heart. It was not much different from implanting a bomb in the heart.
He had no problem carrying the bomb, rather he hoped it would explode even though he did his best to ensure it did not.
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***
He avoided the monsters and kept his distance from the trees, he had not seen any specters until now, something for which he was grateful. As he traversed the forest, he was especially careful of the trees, side-stepping even the roots and branches, making sure to avoid any vines. The forest blurred by as he moved silently in the noisy forest filled with howls and constant fights.
He was forced to depend on his eyesight, it felt alien. Once he had learned how to observe using the Qi, he stopped using eyesight. Now, he felt uncomfortable.
He reached the center of the forest.
‘Finally.’
***
The refined cores were placed right above the heart. He prepared himself.
‘!!!’
A massive suction pulled the Qi inside the cores. Their Qi drilled inward, piercing the dense sea of Qi surrounding his core that kept it in one piece despite its broken state. All it took was a span of a few breaths and then refined cores disintegrated, emptied.
Setting petrol on fire. His core started trembling as the massive quantity of Qi entered. Space that had barely been created after the Qi had slowly left the core during the last few years was filled up again. A ripple spread inside the core, and the Qi churned, crashing against the boundary of the core.
The already damaged core suddenly had to bear a massive amount of pressure as all the Qi inside tried to force its way out. Hurriedly, the Qi under his control gathered, blocking all the Qi pathways extending out from the heart, forcing the Qi back, forcefully increasing the density and pressure around the core.
He could not maintain it for long but it was enough. His core would survive.
The sudden increase in density, the external and internal pressures canceling each other out, this allowed his core to survive.
The Qi inside tried to force its way out through cracks in the core. He did not allow that. The Qi clashed inside, once, twice, thrice, and on and on.
Change.
‘Now!’
Gradually, carefully, he loosened the blockage. Once the external density fell, the Qi started coming out. But this time even from the cracks. It was slow and steady instead of the furious surge that had occurred when he used the technique last time. The core could not bear that.
He was filled with Qi, a vast amount of pure, dense Qi. A feeling of power spread through his being but he knew how temporary it was. There was a small time frame before the after-effects caught up, especially when his body was in such a bad state that even breathing was impossible.
The Qi leaked from his body as pathways that he had temporarily created were now in rune as his body had started breaking apart.
WhoooAZzzz!!WhoooAZzzz!!WhoooAZzzz!!
BBnnKKKAqq!!BBnnKKKAqq!!BBnnKKKAqq!!
The forest in his vicinity erupted into activity. Howls resounded all around him, the hunt had started.
Now he did not need to hold back.
He flew through the forest. Sliding on the ice floor, he got faster and faster despite a tree blocking the path. He did not slow down. A split second. The run transaction into a jump. His legs bent, the Qi rushed into the legs, and a massive thrust hit the trunk, redirecting his direction.
As the legs left the trunk, spikes erupted on the trunk, the leaves on the branches swayed, and the roots burst out, caging in. He escaped.
Mayhem.
The leaking Qi alerted everything in the vicinity of his presence.
Sensing Qi was as vital as eyesight for beings of this frozen world. Deprived of light, only this sensory ability allowed them to observe the world around them, understand it, make sense of it, and survive in it.
His leaking Qi flipped a switch and everything in the vicinity started to hunt him. As soon as they sensed him, all the infightings that had been occurring between them stopped and they rushed towards him, a desire to tear him to shreds forcing them into action.
Berserk.
An unbearable hatred burned in them, something that did not exist a moment before but now had overpowered them.
He sped up again, zigzagging his way through the complicated terrain of the forest. From one tree to another, he jumped and changed directions at high speed, making sharp turns and unpredictable paths.
It put pressure on his body but he had to do it. They were encircling him. The howls had alerted them even though they had been unaware of his presence.
The area outside the Grand Formation was filled to brim with monsters and specters. Most of the time they hunted and killed each other. But there was a reason such high density existed here. They were here to hunt for any human that left the barrier, however few they may be.
He spun at high speed, mid-air, his arm extended. It changed the flight path, allowing him to barely escape through a narrow hole in between the trees.
The monsters collided with one another.
He crashed, rolling, trying to disperse the impact. It did not. The bones broke, having become rigid due to the cold. His rolling stopped near a tree. He lunged away, branches stabbing from above, the roots from below.
He survived, barely.
The ice acted as armor and the skeleton, the ice in the surroundings was consumed as it repaired itself. He resumed the run.
‘I can not overwork myself here.’
He did not have endless endurance. Most of it was already used up to survive up until now and the remaining he had left could not be used in this place. It was not the right time. He needed to get rid of pursuit without putting any burden on the body.
Something came into his mind. Everything used Qi, from the specter to monsters to even these plants.
‘I just need to disrupt that.’
Raw cores are extracted from the monsters or specters. They possessed a very high quantity of Qi, even higher than what was present in refined cores. There was a simple reason why the core needed to be refined. The Qi within was, like everything else in this world, unsuitable for direct absorption by humans.
Once the Qi from an unrefined core was extracted by a human, it became chaotic even to the point of exploding.
His Qi spread inside the core grasped in his hand. It ran amok inside the core, setting everything on fire as the core started vibrating. He threw it away.
Boom
The explosion was a quiet one but the result was anything but.
From then on he threw cores while he ran. The Qi of the forest was already quite active and the explosions only exacerbated that issue, transforming the Qi into a completely chaotic mess. It rendered more of the sensory-related Qi abilities useless.
It was like a flash grenade, thrown right in the face of an unsuspecting person. It blinded the pursues.
Chaos.
The path he came through, a swaying sound rang from it, spreading throughout this section of the forest. The trees, acting as static, unmovable objects started swinging their branches without care. Each strike tore the hardened ice.
All of this had to be dealt with by the monsters chasing after him because he had already vanished, fast and graceful like the wind.
***
Madness.
The monster and specters tried to chase after him, the specters were especially excited. It was the reason for their existence. Blocking them was a major challenge even for the forest itself.
Everything used Qi to observe the world, even the plants. Now they were deprived of their ability to observe.
They were usually immobile. The constant war and fighting in the forest provided them with enough nutrients. But the sudden blindness had enraged them.
Their branches were numerous, each powerful and agile. Inero-ie left behind a path of destruction. It indicated the path he took but it was not easy to follow. This whole section had entered an agitated state. It did not matter who or what it was, everything became minced meat if they neared the trees.
***
The Grand Formation was massive. Despite being surrounded by a glowing forest, as he strained his neck upwards, he still could not see the top. It was mind-bogglingly massive, so massive that he wondered who even made it. He buried that wonder. He did not need to wonder. He only needed to keep the promise and die.
He could feel the specters. He had known they would not be deterred from that much. Most of the things he knew, he had learned by observing the specters and fighting them. They chased after him at full speed.
‘They have been delayed enough.’
It was a clear line. One step back was a forest and one step ahead was a wide open plain with nothing in it. It was as though the forest had been denied any expansion beyond that point.
He had seen the massive barrier and this current scenery tens of times but he still could not hold back the awe, the curiosity, or the wonder.
‘Shit!’
He had stopped. His eyes snapped shut. The bubbling emotions were buried back.
The emotions were getting more and more out of control.
There was a few kilometers wide plane in between the barrier and him.
'AgggGhagg!!'
He dropped to the ground. The Qi started rampaging. The pain came back ever stronger. His muscles twisted, and the bones creaked. The organs were impoverished and under pressure. The situation was dire enough that he was forced to use the vital Qi.
‘Just a few more hours.’
Like a broken puppet, his body stood back up, the motions mechanic, robotic. The condition had not improved. The Qi still ravaged his insides.
Inhale
Exhale
It hurt.
One step, then the next. Walk transitioned to jog and jog into a full-on sprint as he warned up his body for the upcoming dance he would be having within the hoard in between him and the barrier.