The fighting in Shi Bei came to a halt as Imperial and Defiled alike stood frozen in fear and reverence both, their mortal minds overwhelmed by the majesty of the Heavens as it heralded the birth of a new Divinity.
A much-appreciated balm for the senses in these most tumultuous times, especially given the wolf’s personal stake in all this. This marked the second mortal Ascension he’d born witness to, though he’d seen a handful of Spiritual Beasts Ascend as well. He much preferred the latter, since the process felt more complete, more natural and unrestrained as far as his unnamed senses could tell. When a Spiritual Beast Shattered the Void, it signalled the start of its rebirth and reincarnation, a new beginning in a new life only loosely related to the last. By harnessing the twin powers of Creation and Destruction, a child was born, a product of the four elements whose parents were the Heaven and Earth themselves. A miracle was what it was, and though the end result was mostly human in form, it couldn’t be considered a new-born, not in the way humans had them. Human offspring were born weak and helpless and remained that way for far too long, but Ancestral Beasts were born as what humans would call toddlers, developed enough to crawl within minutes and walk with only a few hours of practice.
The wolf never understood why these powerful Spiritual Beasts felt the need to do this, to be reborn so young and helpless. If they were able to avoid the earliest stages of development, why not skip ahead and be reborn as young adults instead? Why even become human in form and retain bestial instincts and characteristics? This last question vexed the wolf greatly, especially after discovering the presence of an actual Divine Turtle and seeing a second ascend to the same status. Why had the wolf chosen to become a weak human when he could have remained a wolf instead? A more powerful wolf at that, one unbothered by the bothersome philosophical musings of a human mind, but there was no cure for regret. That was the end of it in his eyes, but the hare so loved to go on and on about the implications of this decision. The wolf cared not for these sorts of discussions, which did nothing to stop the hare from talking his ears off, and after enough repetitions, some of those words stuck. The long-eared eccentric believed the decision to become Ancestral Beasts instead of Divine Beasts had something to do with those same philosophical musings the wolf so loathed, because only the human mind suffered from such an affliction, one which the hare believed was necessary in order to Ascend to True Divinity and move beyond the Heavens. That was the theory at least, that upon coming into contact with the secrets of the Heavens, a Spiritual Beast would realize it’s limitations and choose to reincarnate as an Ancestral Beast so that it could Ascend to True Divinity in the future, but the wolf was not so sure if that was the case.
Because if the human mind was uniquely equipped for True Divinity, then why was the little doe’s Ascension so lacking in comparison to that of a Spiritual Beast?
Old and frail though he might be, the wolf’s mind was still sharp as ever, and he remembered the day the stupid rabbit first brought the little doe to meet him. “This is Akanai,” the rabbit declared, as if the doe’s name was supposed to mean something. Technically it did, but the wolf didn’t speak their language, and he never cared much for names since he could keep track of individuals just fine without them, though he supposed names were useful in some ways. “She has a proposal,” the rabbit continued, taking the wolf’s silent glare as permission to continue, even though she knew it was the exact opposite. “Listen.”
Allies or not, the wolf would’ve thrown them both out then and there if not for curiosity, an interest directed not towards the doe’s proposal, but at the girl herself. Blue eyes, like his own, but she was not one of his, a tall, athletic girl with hair of golden wheat and the bearing of a leader. A soldier trained and tested too, standing at full attention while glaring as good as she got without showing a single scrap of fear. She reeked of it though, terrified out of her mind while standing before him, and the wolf could hardly blame her, for he’d spared her no mercy while radiating foul displeasure over being rudely woken from his midday nap. The girl had fire in her belly and steel in her spine though, that was for certain, speaking her mind without so much as a stutter and loud enough for him to hear. What truly held his attention however was the new and unfamiliar scent she brought with her, the scent of her sire whom he’d never crossed paths with.
Which meant an Ancestral Beast had come close to or even into his territory without his notice in the last century or so. Unforgivable.
“What sort of half-breed are you?”
The wolf remembered interrupting the doe mid-rant, and how the question sparked her ire, though not for the interruption itself. “Demi-Human,” she responded with a scowl, explaining, “Half-breed or half-beast implies I am less than human.” To her credit, she didn’t balk at the wolf’s glare or silence, and she waited long enough to make her point clear before answering the question. “My sire was a caribou, or so Old Sumila tells me, though she only suspects as much due to my antlers.” Antlers she’d filed down and hidden beneath her hair apparently, since said antlers weren’t visible, though they would’ve been distinct enough to leave no question of her heritage. She didn’t smell like one of the stag’s daughters, and she wouldn’t have grown antlers if she was, so the wolf accepted her answer and decided he’d go for a quick jaunt later and tour the province to see if he could find her sire and teach him a thing or two about boundaries and respect.
Course, the wolf never found the caribou, and to this day, he still didn’t know where the doe’s father had gone off to, as he wasn’t one of the neutral Imperials nor was he one of the Enemy’s turncoats. Maybe the Uniter killed him already, or maybe the caribou was still in hiding, but either way, the doe was one of the wolf’s now, for she’d brought him a pack to oversee and defend. That was the doe’s proposal after all, an alliance between all the various villages of the mountains, and the wolf approved of her plan wholeheartedly. Not at first, but the stupid rabbit hadn’t brought the doe to ask for permission, since she hardly needed it. The Saint’s Tribulations Mountains was his territory, but he hadn’t invited the rabbit and other Divinities to come live here with him so he could lord over them all, nor did he care to manage the humans either. No, he just liked having them around for company, and he didn’t mind the mortals either so long as there was someone around to keep them in line. The doe was a fool for volunteering for so thankless a job and he would be a fool to reject her, so once she said her piece, he patted her on the head and sent her off on her way with express instructions to never bother him again.
Instructions she readily ignored, since she returned more times than he cared to count just to bother him since, but he didn’t mind it much. It felt as if that exchange had taken place only a few years back, but centuries had passed since, and now that doe was Ascending to Divinity. Proud and pleased as a peach, the wolf noted how every eye in Shi Bei was drawn to the doe, even the eyes of commoners without a Core. Strange that, for the Energy of the Heavens ran wild all throughout the city, but even their limited senses could tell that the greatest upheaval was centred around the doe, and the wolf was curious how this might look from a mortal’s perspective. Oh how he pitied them for their lacking perceptions, for though the doe’s Ascension paled in comparison to the rebirth of an Ancestral Beast, it was still a beautiful and sensational miracle to behold. Glowing with a soft, radiant light that did nothing to hamper his vision, the doe stood firm amidst the chaotic swirl of Heavenly Energy as she prepared to bring down the walls between her and the Void. Reality shimmered in place as two worlds overlapped and the doe Manifested her Domain around her, and though it was not clear enough to see, the wolf was none too surprised when his senses caught a hint of familiarity and nostalgia embedded within. The doe loved her home and her people both, so much so that her very identity was tied to them, a Warrior of the Empire hailing from the Saints Tribulations Mountains. Much more complex than the wolf, whose home was wherever he made it, but only because he’d seen too much change in all his centuries of life. To mortals, much of the world appeared fixed and immutable, but only because their lives were so fleeting, hence why they placed so much value on birthplace and background.
Not that the wolf didn’t love his home in the mountains, but only because he’d made it his. If there ever came a day when he could no longer stay, then he would find a new home to live in, and he would cherish it all the same. It wasn’t the place that made it a home, but the people, and so long as they remained, then home was wherever he cared to lay his head.
That was the main difference in Ascensions, as far as the wolf could tell. Spiritual Beasts were willing to give up everything in order to secure a better chance in their next life, while humans were too fixated on what they were to open their minds to what they could become. This was a burden upon the doe, the red dust of the mortal world as it were, a burden she shouldered willingly in spite of the hindrance it proved to her Path, yet at the same time, she might never have come this far if not for it. Even now, as she stepped one foot into Divinity, she kept one foot firmly rooted in the mortal world, for her motivation for doing so was still the same as always. The doe was a leader born, someone who brought the denizens of the Saint’s Tribulations Mountains under one banner and made their lives better for it, without ever asking for anything in return for herself. She was no predator, but a guardian, a protector of the mountains, the Empire, and humanity as a whole, all of which was made clear in the blink of an eye as she laid bare her Dao for the Heavens to judge.
And in all his years of life, the wolf had never met anyone more worthy of Heaven’s Blessings than Akanai of the Bekhai.
The Energy of the Heavens surged through her in quantities unmatched, and the wolf envied her this renewal and rejuvenation. Physically, there was no visible change taking place, for the doe largely remained the same as before. She didn’t grow taller, or younger, or more beautiful, nor did her clothes change even one whit, still stained with sweat, dust, and blood from hours, if not days of continuous battle. Not much washing going on here in Shi Bei even before the siege started, which made for a ripe bouquet the wolf had long since learned to ignore, yet could still smell even under all the blood and death. Despite all this however, the doe was fast becoming more… significant, to the wolf’s senses, her presence growing to become more solid, more consequential, more… more. There was no other way to describe it, because to the wolf, she became more anchored in reality and the Void both, a shining beacon of life and soul that made her feel more substantial than before.
It was almost disappointing in some ways, so lacking in mystery and majesty. The Ascension of an Ancestral Beast was a process of rebirth or reincarnation, yet there would be none of that here today, no new life breathing its first breath in an unfamiliar body filled with strange and unsettling thoughts. He almost pitied the doe for not getting to experience the miracle of rebirth, for a body reforged was not the same, similar to how wearing someone else’s clothes never felt entirely right. She would be weaker for this, distanced from the Heavenly Dao compared to a natural born Divinity, but still beholden to its whims all the same. While others might look down on human Divinities for being weaker and less in tune with the Heavens, this had its advantages as well, namely more freedom to act on emotion without drawing the Wrath of the Heavens down upon them. Sure, a human Divinity’s total strength was inferior to most Ancestral Beasts, but usable strength was nothing to sneeze at, for the wolf was respected not just for his presence alone, but also because he could beat most of them bloody without incurring the Wrath of the Heavens.
As for the doe? She was both brilliant and hard-working, a woman comfortable in her own skin unlike so many humans, half-beasts, and Ancestral Beasts alike. You could see it in the way she moved and fought, wholly in touch with both human intellect and bestial instinct while keeping a fine balance between them. This served her well as a Martial Warrior, and it would serve her even better as a Divinity. It might take centuries, but he expected her to eventually overtake him in usable strength, at which point she would stand at the forefront of all Divinities. Granted, now that the boy had discovered how to counteract Heaven’s Wrath, usable strength might not matter much anymore, but that was neither here nor there.
No, the important thing to focus on was that the wolf finally had a proper successor to take his place. It wasn’t just his strength that kept the Ancestral Beasts of the Saint’s Tribulations Mountains together, nor the safety that his presence offered, but his willingness to keep them all in check and ensure their well being outside of battle. Who else would keep the tiger from tearing off the bear’s head every time he came home reeking of some other woman? Or stop the monkey from taunting the neighbours and stealing their most precious valuables? What about Ling-Lu, who was still a child at heart yet yearned for a family of her own? In spite of all his best efforts, she’d managed to slip away some decades back and bear a child against his better judgement, and it almost killed her to give the girl up after she was born. Then there was little Lin-Lin, who had yet to come into her own, but would similarly need a guiding hand to keep her from becoming a slave to her instincts. Who would help her? The Hare? Ha. He loved the girl like his own flesh and blood, but he had the attention span of a flighty bird and the patience to go with it, to say nothing of his eccentric obsessions and whimsical emotional outbursts which made him seem like little more than a child himself.
For centuries now, the wolf worried that everything he’d built up would fall apart the moment he drew his last breath, for keeping so many territorial Divinities together without conflict took more than mere strength. Alas, the rabbit was too stupid for this job, the hare too capricious, the monkey too irresponsible, the tiger too domineering, and the bear too lazy. Little Ling-Lu wasn’t even in contention for the job, so young she had yet to even master her own instincts much less help others restrain theirs, but the doe? She was an industrious one, and a mortal to boot, or at least she was one until just now, meaning she would not be plagued by the same unreasonable demands instinct and inner nature imposed upon Ancestral Beasts. This made her the best candidate to keep the wolf’s ramshackle pack filled with mortals and Divinities both from falling apart after he died. Brimming with satisfaction now that the future was secured, the wolf immersed himself in the present as he watched the little doe take her final step to becoming the first Half-Beast Divinity in history.
…Demi-Human Divinity. The little doe had a temper to her and courage enough to box his ears if he stepped out of line, even before she had the power necessary to stand against him. A good thing he was on his way out, because the doe was a domineering girl even at the best of times, and the wolf had no desire to be brow-beaten like the blue-eyed pup she’d taken under her wing.
A single second passed, then another as the Energy of the Heavens continued to pour into her while all of Shi Bei watched on. Brows furrowed in concern and confusion, the wolf tried to make sense of these unexpected developments, for most Ascensions were already over and done with by now, but the doe had yet to even Shatter the Void and was already struggling to proceed. The Heavens continued to pour into her yet her presence stopped growing long short of where it should be, with still a long ways to go from even matching a human Divinity. If his presence was a mountain, and normal mortals a pebble, the doe was merely a brick when she should at least be boulder too large to lift. So strange, especially in light of how her Ascension continued in spite of her lacking progress, and for a moment, he feared the worst. Failure was not without consequence, for Ascension demanded more than merely Heavenly Energy. The boy called it Life Force, which was as good a name as any, but the wolf knew there was still more to it. It was more than just lifespan, but vitality and spirit, the energy that kept a person young and vigorous until old age came to rob them of it. The wolf felt its absence keenly, in his back, his shoulders, his hips, and everywhere else, for despite there being nothing physically wrong with him, he felt as if he had the weight of the world sitting on his shoulders which made even getting up in the morning a feat of strength and determination.
As for the doe? She was barely more than a child in his eyes, but in truth, she had less than a century of life left to her. If she succeeded, then the Heavens would reward her with vigor and vitality both, alongside a lifespan better measured in millennia rather than centuries, but failure would result only in death.
Though never one to pay much mind to uncertainties, the wolf was beset by doubt and apprehension as he watched the doe’s Ascension unfurl. Three more seconds passed as the wolf watched with bated breath, and still the girl’s presence was only slightly more significant than a Half-Step Divinity, yet there were no signs of rejection from the Heavens Above or indication that the torrential deluge of Heavenly Energy would slow any time soon. Another second passed before the wolf noticed something else amiss, for though the doe’s presence remained unchanged, she was beginning to give off the scent of danger and threat. Not the befouled threat radiated by the Uniter hovering nearby, with eyes fixed on the doe’s transformation and expression brimming with fury and envy both, nor was it the threat of challenge and power the wolf sensed from the stag, the monkey, the rabbit, or the hare, to name a few.
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No, the doe’s presence was insignificant, but it threatened him all the same, similar to how a hunter threatens a wolf with bow in hand.
It all came together in an instant as the wolf touched upon the doe’s Dao and what made her so formidable a threat. She was no mere brick, but a bar of steel, one being forged by the Heavens themselves into a weapon unlike any other. It was a difference in perspective, a Path taken by no other Divinity in existence, not even the boy who’d diverged from the norms so long ago. Or at least not yet, for the doe forged ahead alongside a Path built upon the same general concept. Only a human could take this Path, because though it followed the same general steps, they were rearranged in a different order to better suit a human’s needs. Where other human Divinities Ascended in pursuit of personal strength, the doe sought strength in order to Ascend. Though these two paths appeared similar at first glance, they were fundamentally different in almost all ways, for while most Refined their bodies enough to withstand the stress of Shattering the Void, the doe put off Shattering the Void in order to continue refining her body at great risk to her chances of success. How long could she hold fast to Balance beneath the ponderous weight of the Heavens? How long could she endure the turbulent storm of Creation and Destruction without losing focus of her Path? How far could she push her body, mind, and soul, yet still have enough strength in her left to complete her Ascension?
Nine full seconds. That’s how long she lasted, from start to finish. Not a long time by any stretch of the imagination, but an eternity when enduring the full weight of the Heavens, yet her efforts were not without benefit. The moment she stopped holding herself back, the doe Shattered the Void and Ascended to become a Divinity in truth.
A weak Divinity, the wolf would have said, with a presence so meagre she seemed more like a candle than beacon in the Void. He would have been wrong, for the Energy of the Heavens stilled around her for an instant, then rose up once more as she launched an attack without warning, one wherein her body was the bow, her weapon the arrow, and her target the Uniter hovering across the way. An attack the wolf intended to stop before she broke the Treaty in her excitement, but even as he arrived at her side to hold her in place, she disappeared before his eyes. Though unable to track her movements, he felt her arrive before the Uniter with a clap of thunder, her passing collapsing the air itself behind her, and as her weapon collided with her foe’s golden, shimmering robes in a resounding clang of steel, the wolf felt a flash of fear as he considered how he might fend off her attack and realized he had no recourse but to die.
For the doe’s Ground-Shrinking Strikehad been executed without deviation from her Dao, and thus the Heavens saw fit to make it so, empowering her attack with a similar deadly force to what the boy and the Uniter wielded, a destructive energy that reeked of death and violence which the wolf was unable to replicate or withstand.
Reality threatened to unravel around the doe and her opponent as they collided in the air. Not because she’d drawn the Wrath of Heaven, but because the Uniter had almost done so in his haste to defend, enacting a Domain-Plated shield that left an invisible but palpable scar in the world itself yet still failed to protect him from the doe’s superlative attack. As the Uniter hurtled head over heels through the skies while reeling from the attack, the doe stood tall and shattered the silence hanging over Shi Bei. “Where there is life,” she proclaimed, speaking not to her opponent who righted himself only after tumbling more than a hundred metres away, but to the soldiers below and behind her. “There is hope,” she continued, before settling into her stance once more. “So fight on, brave Heroes of the Empire, and together, we shall seize victory or death.”
“Victory or Death!” A single voice took up the call in reply, then thousands more joined in as the battle began anew, with Akanai leading the charge against the Uniter. “Victory or Death! Victory or Death! Victory or Death!” Emboldened by the doe’s counterattack, the soldiers of Shi Bei fought with renewed hope and vigour, their bodies no stronger but their spirits restored as they gave their all to hold just a moment longer. For the first time in recent memory, the wolf hesitated to act, unsure if he should put an end to the doe’s pursuit as she surged forward to do battle with the Uniter once more. Eyes widening in surprise, he turned his focus to the walls of Shi Bei where the Energy of the Heavens began converging once more, marking yet another human beginning their Ascension to Divinity.
Then another.
And still a third, before the chaotic torrents of Heavenly Energy became too muddled to read.
That settled it. There might still be good reason to endure if it was only the doe, but with so many of the Imperial Army’s best and brightest Ascending one after another, then the battle between mortals was all but lost. Treaty be damned then, because now this war would be decided between Divinities, and all their hopes lay with the doe now that the monk and the boy were too tired and spent to keep fighting. Shooting out to support her, the wolf intercepted the stag from attacking the doe with fist raised to strike. They’d fought many a time before, but they’d never once decided a victor, for they each lacked the ability to pierce through the other’s defenses. That might change here today, for the wolf felt a stirring within his mind which he’d previously ignored, and in his elation, he let down his guard against the boy and accepted his aid in this battle for the ages.
The boy was a tangled jumble of emotions which were impossible to read, so the wolf made note to give him a pat on the head and focused on his own thoughts instead. The Energy of the Heavens flowed through him as he remembered how the doe embodied her strike and the sensation it impressed upon him, a deadly threat tied directly to the doe and her weapon. Stricken by Insight in this moment of dire need, the wolf laughed at his foolish self even as the world made sense once more and he locked eyes with his rival and foe. For as long as he could remember, they’d always fought with fist and foot, because even something as minor as a gauntlet or a boot never seemed to sit right with either of them. Better to fight with fang and claw in his opinion, but as an Ancestral Beast, the wolf lacked those natural weapons and had to make do with punches and kicks instead, while the stag still had his spiked antlers to threaten the wolf. This alone made up for the disparity in usable strength, and the wolf had never been able to overcome it, meaning their matches always ended in a draw with neither one suffering any sort of grievous injury. Even after millennia of practice and growth, he still never liked fighting bare-handed much, though he disliked fighting with weapons even more, and he’d long since resigned himself to the satisfying but less than euphoric sensations of sinking his fist into his foe’s flesh, one which paled in comparison to the joys of rending apart a worthy foe with tooth and claw.
But while his human form was sorely lacking these most vital of wolfish traits, the Heavens would provide if he should so demand it.
Opening his clenched fist felt like the most natural thing of all as he swung down at his long-time rival. His arthritic fingers ached as he jammed them against the stag’s sturdy flesh, but only for a moment before a foreign yet all too familiar destructive energy surged forth from his hands and delivered unto him the sweet and almost forgotten sensation of claws carving through flesh. Claws of Domain, Heavenly Energy, and more, but the wolf cared not for the details, because for the first time in living memory, he felt whole again. Eyes wide with fear and fury, the stag panicked at this unexpected twist, for they’d been fighting for centuries without real injury and he'd forgotten what it was like to be prey. The stag of old would have stood and fought, forced the wolf to pay a costly price in exchange for his life, but in his fear, he sought to slip away instead. Driven by the scent of blood and victory, the wolf refused to let his quarry escape so easily and clung grimly to his foe while shaking off all manner of errant attacks, the stag’s allies lending a hand as he circled about the city like a chicken with its head cut off.
Oh how sweet his terror tasted on the air, manifesting into power that threatened to draw Heaven’s Wrath down upon them both, but the wolf’s Domain held firm to reinforce reality and uphold the Treaty even as the stag did away with all pretense in his desperate last bid to escape death. Snarling with guttural delight, the wolf sank his heaven-forged fangs into the stag’s shoulder while all four claws raked through flesh, scything across the stag’s back, ribs, and belly all at once and washing the wolf in a spray of sweet blood. Overwhelmed by the heady rush of the kill, he clamped his claws around the stag’s spiked antlers and pushed off with his legs, letting loose with a howl of ravenous victory as he wrenched his quarry’s head clean off with most of his spine still attached. Holding his prize high overhead, he howled a second time and licked the blood from his lips before launching himself at his next target, the formidable prey that was the mammoth. Settling into a loping, wolf-like gait, he moved faster than he had in centuries as he crashed into his hulking foe with claws brandished, fangs bared, and destructive energies coursing through him.
Even this most ponderous of opponents could do naught but give way before him, for there was no stopping the wolf now that he’d found his fangs and claws once more. Calamity had come to Shi Bei, and only the blood of his foes could appease him, so give him victory, or give him death.
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Du Min Gyu thought of himself as a Warrior first above all else, but there was no denying the truth.
As a young boy, he’d succeeded at Core Creation and catapulted to the front of the line with regards to inheriting the family fortune, and with it the heavy responsibility of being the Du Family Patriarch. A title he never cared much for, since his father loathed it so, which was why it had been so easy to leave it all behind after the love of his young life broke his heart and refused to elope with him. Despite this setback, he still left home to escape the heartache and survived by using the only skills he possessed, a meagre ability with saber and spear. While he could not be considered a talented Warrior by any measure, even a middling Warrior like himself was capable of earning more than he needed to survive as a caravan guard. For five years he lived like this, working when he had to and practicing only enough to get by until the hour grew late enough to drink his sorrows away, right up until he was thrust headlong into a war because he was too foolish to see the obvious consequences of his vagabond lifestyle. A good thing too, for he found new love on the field of war, one he courted with sabre in hand, a love of battle and bloodshed unmatched. From lowly third-grade Warrant Officer, he fought and survived long enough to rise through the ranks to become a storied Exarch of the Empire, the high-point of his career at the tender age of fifty-five.
Then he fought the Butcher of Kun Lun and was left crippled for his efforts, at which point he had nothing left to do but teach.
By then, he’d reconnected with his family and put aside past grievances, but his injuries meant the title of Patriarch would forever be denied him. Not that he cared, for his elder brother who inherited the position never acted against his wishes regardless, because ‘Great Teacher Du’ still had power and connections aplenty. Though it irked him to admit as much, Min Gyu was a far better teacher than he was a Warrior, because while stood at the forefront of his peers in terms of Martial strength, there were only a handful who could compete with his achievements as a teacher. One that he knew of, in fact, namely Jeong Hyo-Lynn, a brilliant woman who raised three fine young Warriors and a cadre of elite household guards, but Min Gyu had long since lost count of how many Field Officers credited him for their success. While his students previously were unable to compare to the dazzling brilliance of Ryo Da’in, little Yan’s star was on a meteoric rise and the Sanguine Whirlwind might well overshadow Central’s Sword Princess soon enough, meaning at the end of the day, Min Gyu’s contributions as a teacher were second to none.
A point he took great pride in, but today in Shi Bei, he realized the folly of his hubris far too late.
There was an oft quoted idiom that few used in his presence, for reasons he knew all too well. Indigo blue is extracted from the indigo plant, but the dye is bluer than the plant itself. What this meant was that a good teacher would produce excellent students, and in time, the students would surpass the teacher, but commoners and nobles alike knew that Du Min Gyu had never produced a particularly exceptional student. Yes, his students all went on to excel in the Martial Path, but none showed promise enough to outshine his accomplishments, none until Yan at least. Even Kyung was somewhat lacking in talent, but he would rise to the top in time, for he bore a love for the Martial Dao and a tireless work ethic which all but guaranteed success.
That being said, the lack of an exemplary student had always been a sore point of contention for Min Gyu, because he’d wholeheartedly believed that Kai would be the student to one day surpass him. That dream came to an abrupt end when Kai died in the North, and while subsequent discoveries and events changed how Min Gyu felt about his prized pupil, it still pained him to think about what might have been. Then again, if not for Kai’s death, he would never have met Yan, his precious grand-daughter who brought so much joy and love into his life. If not for her, he might never have acknowledged Kyung as his grandson even though he’d always looked fondly upon the boy, to say nothing of how she’d turned his life around by bringing him into contact with the Medical Saint. Five years had passed since then, a half-decade in the blink of an eye wherein his life was turned upside down, but years which he would not trade away for all the wealth in the world.
Now, if he were to go back in time and change one thing in his life, it would no longer be the duel which left him crippled and broken. Min Gyu’s fall from grace and everything that followed was all part and parcel of his Path, the vicissitudes of life necessary to teach him everything he needed to know in order to become the man he was today. Not a Warrior first, and not even a teacher, but a grandfather who loved his grandchildren more than life itself. No, if he were to change one thing, he would go back five years and tell himself to let go of pride, because only then would he be capable of truly learning from Falling Rain.
Shame and regret welled up from within as Min Gyu watched Akanai Ascend, for he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the boy was somehow involved. Not because he didn’t believe her capable of doing this on her own, but because the Heavens were in such turmoil that he found it difficult to even breathe with so much Energy surging about. This was clearly the boy’s work, though at a scale never before seen, for even the storm in Sinuji had not churned the Heavens into a tempest threatening to overturn the world itself. All around him, Warriors Developed their Domains while Peak Experts immersed themselves in Insight to comprehend the secrets of their Path, yet Min Gyu stood alone without so much as a spark of wisdom to be found.
Because despite having recognized little Rain’s brilliant genius and benefitting from his discussions, Min Gyu had yet to wholeheartedly accept that the boy had anything to teach him.
A matter of misplaced pride, as events in Shi Bei proved quite readily, and even then, he did naught but watch Akanai as she Ascended to Divinity. Long seconds passed without so much as a thought passing through Min Gyu’s mind, for these matters were far beyond his meagre comprehension. Even though he was familiar with all of little Rain’s very plausible theories, he saw none of it here in Shi Bei. Not because it wasn’t there, but because Min Gyu lacked the ability to perceive any of it, a truth he waited far too long to even acknowledge. Heaving a heavy sigh at his foolish ways, he spared the boy a quick glance and saw him ready to fall over on his face in yet another coma. There he was, exhausting himself once more in order to give the Warriors of Shi Bei a fighting chance, and Min Gyu here was too proud to accept his help.
A fool is what he was, for there was another idiom he’d paid too little mind to, that there was no limit to learning in life.
The moment he accepted this truth in his heart, his whole world was overturned. Little Rain’s Natal Soul was a wellspring of love and devotion, but beyond the familial affections was a deep-seated respect and veneration which he only rarely expressed. To think, the boy admired this old fool so much that he held Min Gyu to the same standards as Akanai and his father. Little Rain challenged their understanding of the Dao and questioned their perspectives, but only because he respected them, as others were not even worth challenging, and he found great delight in Min Gyu’s interest because few others cared to engage him. To make matters worse, as Min Gyu put aside his personal affairs to immerse himself in Insight, he discovered that the Heavens had little more to add to what the boy had already said, for the answers had been right there for months now and Min Gyu never gave it a second thought. It wasn’t some brilliant advice or dazzling instruction from little Rain or the Heavens, merely a recollection of a conversation they shared in passing regarding Primal Blessings and opposing forces.
“But a Primal Blessing only offers us control of one of those fundamental forces, so how are we to utilize its opposing force?”
That was Min Gyu’s question, and the boy’s answer was simple enough. “Easy. You’re thinking of opposing forces as two separate entities, like push and pull, but if you need to oppose a force pushing left and cannot pull, you can always just push right instead.”
It wasn’t that Min Gyu discarded this information immediately and forgot it until now. He’d taken this information and used it to perfect the Explosive Wind, driving air into an encapsulated sphere of Domain while simultaneously drawing air out of it at the same time, albeit at a slower rate. This allowed him to build up the necessary pressure within the sphere in the blink of an eye before unleashing it upon his foes, but he always went about it in an exceedingly careful and restrained manner. The reason was simple, for his Domain was unable to withstand the staggering pressure even a tenth of his full power could bring to bear. The results of the Explosive Wind were impressive enough even at a fraction of his power, but now that he thought about it, why did he need the sphere of Domain to begin with?
The point of the Explosive Wind was to explode, so why go to all the effort of stabilizing it first? Sure, it made for a useful ranged delivery system, but he could do so much more by simply directing the force.
Rather than the palm of his hand, Min Gyu directed his Blessing of Air around the tip of his Battle Fan, which he twirled about without even thinking to keep himself in tune with the wind. Rather than two directions, he drove the air out in all possible directions, pushing his abilities to the extreme while simultaneously maintaining a careful Balance so no singular direction was greater than any other. At the same time, he exerted his efforts to pull along in the same directions, opposing forces working towards the same goal to exert more force in a singular moment than ever before, an Imbalance born of extreme Balance which left behind a singular point of null pressure that collapsed upon itself the moment his efforts were spent. Rather than a Domain sphere to contain it, he merely created a cone to direct the resulting explosion outward, one which shook the walls of Shi Bei and left his ears ringing with pain. It also cleared out a wave of encroaching Half-Demons and rendered them into little more than a pulp of flesh, chitin, and bloody mist, a sight which had Min Gyu cackling to the high heavens in spite of his deafened hearing.
There were other secrets to uncover within the throes of Insight, but as Akanai delivered the Uniter an earthshattering blow, Min Gyu discarded all thoughts of Ascension as he took in the astonished gazes of the soldiers closest to him. So many Domain-Capable Warriors, each one a threat to be reckoned with, yet they were all in over their heads and unsure of what to do next. If they survived here today and returned home to Central, they would be kings among men, but here in Shi Bei, they were merely soldiers in need of guidance. Strength of arm was not enough, for without direction, it might well be wasted, so Min Gyu echoed the Wolf Divinity’s spine-chilling howl and lead this army of elites to do battle with the Enemy by way of example. Soldiers against soldiers, Generals against Generals, and Divinities against Divinities, so if Du Min Gyu were to Ascend alongside the other storied heroes of the Empire, who would be left to shoulder the Heavens for the soldiers below?
The hot desert wind swirled about as he conjured up a Wind Blade to bring death and destruction upon his foes, while his heart sang with elation as he greeted his love once more. Even knowing he’d given up a chance for a longer life, he had no feeling of regret whatsoever as he fought shoulder to shoulder with a new generation of Demon Slayers and showed them how to survive in a battle of this level. He’d taught his grandchildren everything he could, and they were both strong enough to stand on their own, so even if he were to die here today, then he would die with a smile upon his face.
For he was Du Min Gyu, and his legacy would live on through Du Min Yan and Du Min Kyung, his two beloved grandchildren and Disciples.
Chapter Meme 1
Chapter Meme 2