The sages had all made preparations in case their great Xia Dynasty collapsed under the weight of its own achievements. A great dynasty invokes jealousy, and they made many enemies in this way; because of their conquering ways, and their dexterous martial arts that couldn't be found anywhere else. They made their laws, and they taught their heirs, but sometimes, a firm branch cannot be trained to twist and bend; the late patriarch of the Xia Dynasty ended up a wayward one, looking for peace and marrying a foreign woman.
After 2000 years, a dynasty makes and breaks laws as they please. Even the honorable Xia Dynasty had its fair share of law-bending and breaking. But one law remained true. All sages would come to their final resting place on the Last Stronghold. There would be no reincarnation for them. Only eternal and perpetual residence in the libraries, in the halls of the Last Stronghold.
Their spirits seemed to be intertwined with the very fabric of the materials making up the stronghold, and no worldly exorcist would ever be able to part them from their resting place. This was a strategic choice since if threatened, the heirs could easily retreat to here, and the sages would protect them.
Two millennia of successful reign resulted in quite a lot of souls accumulated here. Sages were the target of the whole world, even immortals, for their knowledge and treasures; and if they were too weak, they would be crushed by the weight and their bodies and treasures would be divided like bread among the 9 Great Immortal Sects.
And all of them were sizing up Xia Song, the new heir.
‘He seems much too young, doesn’t he?’ A training yard ghost commented, judging Xia Song’s features closely, stepping on the woolen snow and leaving no marks.
‘Nay, nay, I just say he’s much too short, much too short indeed!’ Another ghost sage came up behind Xia Song and compared his height, shaking his head with worry at what the new generation has become.
A ghost at the top of the pagoda joins in the conversation, hawk-like eyes piercing through Xia Song’s appearance and looking at his meridians. ‘He seems too weak to be our descendant.’
‘Yes, well; only the weak sages end up making kids.’ Another ghost remarked in the building next to the pagoda, boredly letting his hand pass through the snow over and over again just to feel the faint feeling of ice. Life as a ghost was boring, especially when you had to exert spiritual energy just to touch someone.
The sage at the top of the pagoda scoffed, playing with his sword sheathed in his scabbard like a baton in his hands. ‘We’re all weak sages. That’s why we’re dead, and not ascended like our relatives.’
‘Shhh!! You can’t say that! Your ancestors are here!’ One ghost quickly berated the pagoda ghost, quickly looking around the perimeter for any other ghosts who heard the remark.
A ghost flew up to the pagoda, closed its fan, and lifted the chin of the pagoda ghost cheekily, grinning a sly smile. ‘Don’t say something so pessimistic, Xia Tai.’
‘I’m just saying, all of us ended up killed. We're the weak sages and that's a fact.’ The pagoda ghost named Xia Tai defended, both of his transparent hands coming up as a sign of defeat.
‘This Xia Song seems like a willow in the wind.’ Another ghost blurted out, watching Xia Song stumble and hurt his knees, quickly returning up. The ghosts nodded along and agreed.
The fan ghost quickly came down from the pagoda and analyzed Xia Song’s face closely. ‘Too beautiful! I’m telling you, there is a 50% chance he was raised as a son, but is actually a gir-’
‘Don’t say something so perverted. Besides, he’s not. I’ve checked.’ A stray ghost said, coming from the central library.
‘Woah, woah woah! Xia Li, what did you say? Don’t do something dishonorable, your ancestors are here!’ The fan sage opened his fan and laughed nervously to himself.
The ghost named ‘Xia Li’ scoffed, before quickly rebutting. ‘Tsk, stop being filthy-minded. I may be a woman, but I liked women in my day.’
‘ ‘In my day?’ When you put it like that it sounds like you—’
A nearby sage sighed loudly, and boomed; ‘Everyone, shut up.’ The other ghosts quickly turned to see who it was, and quickly turned their heads back, not wanting a fight. This sage was Xia Yingjie, one of the most powerful pillars of the Xia Dynasty in his time. ‘Look at him more closely. Can’t you see it?’
The rooftop sage frowned, before focusing his eyes further. The sharp, sword-like eyes quickly widened at the result. ‘This!?’
Xia Yingjie nodded. ‘See? Do not question his worth anymore. At the mere age of 4, with a dantian like his? Tsk, tsk, he’s already overtaken you, dishonorable descendants, at 4.’
‘Amazing. And his spiritual root, too; it’s like a masterpiece of nature. Look how carefully crafted it is, it looks like an ancient array!’
Another sage ghost spoke up. ‘But I worry for his body. Look. You cannot deny that his body looks much too weak to take a beating, not speaking of actually fighting.’
‘Give it time. He’s only 4, for Nuwa’s sake!’ Xia Yingjie scolded, promptly hitting the sage ghost on the head. ‘But will he be okay? With all our preparations, it seems the labels on the ingredients in the kitchen have peeled off... With his young, naive age, he might end up poisoning himself.’
‘Come now, give him more face, there’s no way a descendant of mine doesn’t know how to tell which medicinal ingredients are too potent for the human body.’ The fan ghost laughed, flourishing his fan closed.
‘Xia Cheng, how are you so sure he’s your descendant? A cut sleeve like you didn’t have any kids!’ Xia Yingjie reproached.
‘Ugh! Do you really think you’re a hotshot? Just because you revolutionalized the Xia Dynasty doesn’t mean you can insult me, the Heavenly Doctor as you please!’ The fan ghost shot back. ‘I, the mighty Xia Cheng will teach you a lesson today!’
The other ghosts deadpanned, watching the two relish in a ‘ghost fight’ that had no real point. They were already dead. They could not be injured, or even exchange blows with another ghost; they were just being dramatic.
‘Those fucking imbeciles..’ The rooftop ghost sneered, but turned back, surveying Xia Song carefully. ‘Yeah. But I am worried about him poisoning himself... I should probably do something about it.’
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Xie Qi stared blankly, mildly surprised that there was an already-cooked bowl of soup waiting for him in the kitchen. He had spent half of the day after his brother left looking around the premises, memorizing the buildings without vy for rest.
It was still hot, Xie Qi observed; and concluded that it was highly likely another resident was living here. But how was he to prove it?
Let’s see their intentions, Xie Qi thought to himself, testing the bowl of soup carefully. He grabbed a nearby mouse and gave it a brief dose, putting it in a container and observing it carefully.
After 10 minutes passed, Xie Qi gave up observing and promptly went to the library to read. He thought for a while about their intentions and came up short of anything he did to deserve favor.
The whole area of the place was the size of a baseball field, which was one of the first things Xie Qi saw when he was let out of the lab in his previous life.
Xie Qi presumed this would make it hard to catch the perpetrator of the soup, given that this world seemed to be a ‘cultivation’ world, and the opponent’s skill would surely be trained in speed, and with the whole breadth of this place to run.. Xie Qi couldn’t chase them down. It would be best to catch them in a trap, like a deadfall trap, or a net trap.
Xie Qi pondered about this the whole time walking to the library. Xie Qi counted the 88th step and looked up. The library’s entrance greeted him warmly. He noted the number of steps he had to take, before pushing the library’s doors open.
The dust hit his face and entered his esophagus before the light in his eyes could, thus denying him the perfect first look of the library. Xie Qi leaned over slightly, recoiling from the dust, and sneezed uncontrollably from the amount of dust the library’s doors accumulated.
But after the sneezing fit, Xie Qi opened his eyes to the last few traces of the morning light being amplified into great rays of light, bouncing off of the carved mahogany and dusty gilded gold. Despite the grandness of the library, what amazed Xie Qi was the number of books in the library. The walls formed a hexagonal shape in the interior, and each wall was filled with books. From floor to floor and wall to wall, it seemed like there had to be at least a few million books; and that didn’t include the countless bookcases other than the walls.
It would take a few years to read all of it normally, but Xie Qi estimated he could finish all of it in one year, at most. 6 months, at best. If he started now and did nothing else.
Xie Qi grinned to himself.
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You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
It had been at least a few weeks in the library. Occasionally, Xie Qi went outside for a meal, but mostly, he spent his days in the library, reading and exercising. He sat down on the railing, the only thing keeping himself from falling the five floors down to the utmost bottom floor of the pagoda, and began to do knee-ups. While he was doing so, he kept a book in his hands, his eyes staying trained on it the whole time.
Xie Qi thought to himself that it was almost dusk, and the writings would soon appear.
He quickly jumped from his floor and to the bottom to observe it. Just then, an array of mirrors began to reveal themselves, the sun coming in at the opening of the top pagoda and coming down with the different mirrors, each positioned at an angle.
Xie Qi observed the straight ray of light go in all directions, and finally connect at the obelisk in the middle, making the interior of the library burst with a blaze of writing.
It looked as though the library was on fire with words. Xie Qi angled his head up, beginning to read.
“In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no form, and no formlessness. An absence of light, and an absence of darkness. In this nothingness, something began to form. Nothingness and somethingness, void and the lack of it, soon became apparent. And then from that something, Pangu emerged to split the nothingness and somethingness into—” Xie Qi was cut short, and felt his head getting dizzier and dizzier; his vision beginning to blur.
He fell slowly into unconsciousness.
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The sage ghosts were worried, to say the least. For all their strength and all of their years living, they still felt a sort of familial responsibility for their brethren. Losing their only heir other than Xia Hui made them feel like terrible ancestors.
‘Where is that child? I haven’t seen him in weeks!’ Xia Cheng muttered worriedly, looking around the courtyard and in the corners of the buildings for Xia Song.
‘Did he die, or something?’ A ghost said, coming down from the main palace.
‘Nonsense!’ Xia Yingjie berated the ghost, hitting it over the head with his scabbard. ‘No descendant of mine would die so, so, shamefully! He has to be here somewhere!’ A tinge of nervousness rang in his voice.
Xia Tai hated to admit it, but he was worried also. He looked around, searching the buildings quietly, landing in the library. With a tired sigh, he said to himself; ‘That heir has to be here.’, before pushing open the doors.
Xia Tai froze at the contents. A multitude of sage ghosts and a sleeping boy greeted him. The ghosts were moving in groups, and all of them seemed strangely awestruck. Xia Tai stormed into the library and quickly waved the hordes of ghosts away.
‘What are you fools doing.!? He is but a child, stop terrorizing–!’
Another ghost interrupts him, shaking with what was either fear or anger. ‘We are not terrorizing him. He is terrorizing us, and disturbing the peace.’
‘Yeah! He knocked over the bookcase I was residing in by doing pull-ups and reading at the same time, knocking over all of the other bookcases on my floor because of the domino-like effect, and instead of fixing all this mess, he does pushups while reading his books instead!’ One ghost chorused.
‘He hasn’t eaten a bite through all of this! He just sits there, reading and exercising like a madman! We had to forcefully get him to sleep, can you imagine that?’
‘There must be something fundamentally wrong with his brain, but when I probed his spiritual consciousness, he was perfectly fine. What has our Xia Dynasty done to this child..’
Xia Tai stopped, in awe. He looked towards the heir and fixed the blanket that threatened to slide off. ‘If what you say is true, then this child is much stronger than we originally perceived. Discipline like that… It’s monstrous.’
‘We speak only the truth.’ The ghosts answered collectively, waning and fading together, like a row of seaweed flowing with the water. ‘On our primordial souls themselves.'
Xia Tai nodded with approval, turning his back to go to the kitchen and cook up something for when the child woke up. He assured himself further that he wasn't concerned at all. He was simply fulfilling his responsibility as an ancestor sage, he deluded himself, not wanting to believe that he actually considered this scrawny kid as family.
“..Sir?”
He froze. Slowly turning back, he saw the child slowly stand up, rubbing his eyes and straightening his posture. The child stood straight, and held his hand out.
“Sorry for my rudeness. You must be the people who’ve been living here. My name is Xie– Xia Song.” Xie Qi politely greeted the ghosts, which he shouldn’t have been able to see at all, and introduced himself as Xia Song.
‘How are you seeing me?’
Xie Qi’s eyebrows knit together to form a strange look. “You… sir, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
That’s because I am a ghost, you bastard! Xia Tai thought to himself, a chill running up and down his spine. ‘Impossible, you can’t be that far into your cultivation, right? To the point where you can detect souls?’
Xie Qi looked at the strange man even more strangely. “Sir, have you hit your head? I’m only 4. How am I to even start cultivating?”
Either the child was a dead liar, or he was completely genuine and was an absolute monster. Judging from the child's expression, Xia Tai knew it was the latter. He doesn’t even know he’s cultivating, his body is doing so naturally? How does that happen? Xia Tai felt a sense of coming dread and existential failure looming over him because of the utter brilliance of the newest heir, but before he could fall into a depression, he shouted out. ‘Everyone! I’ve found him!’
The ghosts came all at once.
Xie Qi sprang to attention, squaring himself up. The strange man shouted something just now, and he felt the presence of much more people looming close. The library door burst open, a cloud of dust being produced in the process.
A huge amount of people faced him, and he looked back, his eyes widening. Xie Qi quickly regained his composure.
“Uh, my name is Xia Song. It’s nice to meet you all!” Xie Qi greeted, making sure to bow down a respectful 45 degrees to his seniors. Who knew that a gaggle of old men would all live in this secluded mountain peak? Did his brother send him to a monastery, perhaps?
The crowd of people blinked at him, before promptly going insane. Some ran away, some stayed, and some beat their fist on the library door, but strangely, it didn’t make any sound. The hand simply passed through.
Xie Qi knew what was happening immediately. They’re spirits! He thought to himself, before immediately getting ready to run. “So many resentful spirits here, this must have been a place of great tragedy.” He commented, grinning to himself slightly. The ghosts stilled, before looking at Xie Qi strangely.
‘He thinks we’re resentful ghosts.?’
‘Of course, he thinks we’re resentful ghosts with how unkempt you lot look!’ One ghost came bursting in, clutching the scabbard of his sword and beating away the ghosts in his way. ‘And where are your manners? Ancestors, descendants, all you bunch here are disrespecting our Xia Dynasty! Greet him back, you godforsaken group of—’
Another ghost quickly ran to the rescue, covering the other ghost’s mouth with a closed fan. The other ghost struggled, muffled sounds ensuing in his indignant grapple. The ghost with the fan said politely. ‘I’m sorry you had to see this. It’s just, this brute keeps preaching manners when his have gotten dusty long ago!’ The fan ghost said, nervously laughing. ‘My name is Xia Cheng, one of your ancestors, and formerly the ‘Heavenly Doctor’.’
Xie Qi’s form slackened ever so slightly. “Heavenly Doctor?”
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Somewhere in a desolate battlefield, a new recruit is thrown into the front lines. Unlike the other front liners there, he displays clear-headedness and absolute skill, killing without any remorse and even going so far as to climb and trample against other’s bodies to get easily through the battlefield.
He was going to be a part of this. He was a part of this, the war, the carnage. Just not the side he wanted to, not the side that he was raised by; despite this, he was going to drive the enemies back, and he would be a hero. At 14, Xia Hui was 10 years older than his younger brother, but he had never felt like such a child before.
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“So you are the ghosts of my ancestors.” Xie Qi reiterated quietly to himself. The ghosts around him nodded before Xie Qi abruptly stood up. Frankly, Xie Qi did not care. He didn’t like to make his mind suffer with the presence of too many variables. All that he would do about it is utilize their teachings. “Well, okay. Do what you will. I need to train.”
Xie Qi had already read half of the library’s contents, and it was apparent to the ghosts that he urgently wanted to apply it.
Huffing proudly, Xia Yingjie was the first one to exit the library, following Xie Qi to the training yard to observe his providence. Xia Cheng closely followed, humming happily to himself, and Xia Tai gruffly nodded, before following the others.
Xie Qi shut his eyes, allowing the images of the steps and the written formula to light up his mind. He breathed slowly, letting the warmth slip below his stomach before the ki ran through his veins, breathing life into him.
He kept his eyes closed, wanting no distractions. He kept his shoulders relaxed, and his feet a shoulder’s length across from each other. Gently, he freed his limbs from his sides and grabbed the balanced wooden spear in his hands.
One, is The Movement of The Tide. He recited quietly to himself, moving his limbs accordingly in a uniform manner, strictly to the book. Two, The Movement of The Gale. He recited again and felt his hands cut through something, but he couldn’t identify what. Yet, he still did not open his eyes. Three, The Advance of The Sun. Xie Qi lurched forward, feeling his limbs move on his own. Four, The Recedence of The Moon. Xie Qi retreated in the same way he advanced, returning back to his relaxed form.
Xie Qi opened his eyes. He frowned to himself, lamenting that he had no way of seeing what he looked like performing the arts from another person’s perspective. It looked like he had not even made a footstep mark on the dusty training ground, too. Going back to the library, he scolded himself for thinking that something was going to happen. He needed to read more and practice more.
The faint ancient markings of a trigram where he once stood go unnoticed.
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Nature and the city around them were nearly ripped apart by the war. But the general was convinced that it was the least of mercies. He would take this city at last, and it would stop hurting with the constant struggle of war.
He found himself staring at the street gutter, distracted by something else other than combat for the first time in weeks. He had seen one so many times before, but now instead of water, it was running with dark red blood.
Based on the color, it surely had been running for weeks like this, with dirty, sickly sweet blood instead of water. Xia Hui was sure that it had different people’s blood in it. It was almost certain that one of his comrade’s blood ran there. And similarly, his enemy's blood. So what? If he died, he, his comrades, and his enemies would be one, synergizing together as one being in some kind of sick gutter of blood. It didn’t matter, blood was blood, but he found himself laughing hysterically at the concept.
He wasn’t about to lose his mind in this place. There was still work to be done. He wanted to greet his brother with a sound enough mind at the end of this all. His knuckles turned white as his grip on his sword tightened. His eyes narrowed as he heard the sound of a soldier quickly closing in on him.
He turned and blocked the incoming blow with his sword.
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The ancestor sages lived long enough to look upon a mortal lifetime as something that they could hold in the palm of their hands, pooling the years like water inside their palms. But strangely, the three years with Xia Song seemed as though the day would never end, and it felt as though they were reliving a mortal lifetime. Looking at the boy now, they nodded with approval. Xia Song was now seven, and he felt more mature than he had ever felt.
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“And thus, the recedence of the moon and the advance of the sun are the same, and following this, yin and yang are formed of the same cloth. Using this knowledge, the spearman set out to do away with both immortals and devils, indiscriminately and…” Xie Qi trailed off, opening his eyes. “Without condition.”
He lifted the point of his spear from the ground and observed his work. “Much better than 2 years ago.” Xie Qi commented proudly to himself, before retreating to fully view his handiwork.
A precisely drawn trigram inked with precise ki-powered strikes of the spear greeted him proudly and assured him of all his hard work. Xie Qi could feel a faint spear intent beating still in the scarred stone, and hummed approvingly.
He decided to repeat the arts again this time, but removed the precise aspect of it and focused on the explosive strength, infusing the spear in his hands with defensive and offensive ki.
A boom resounded before Xie Qi opened his eyes again. A completely caved-in training ground greeted him, a neat circular basin the cause of his handiwork. Rocks clattered in the middle, threatening to trap his feet, all of them cleanly chopped, as though a knife went through them. Xie Qi grinned.
Xia Yingjie shook his head. ‘His talent is way too monstrous. At this rate of providence, he may be short of something somewhere else..’
‘Don’t say such an unlucky, jinx-like comment.’ Xia Cheng scoffed, hitting Xia Yingjie on the side of the head with his fan once more.
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The foot soldier breathed raggedly, before venturing once more upon the ranks of piles of bodies, each stacked atop the other in some sort of grotesque hill. Atop this hill, he spotted a singular soldier of a small frame. It was strange, how much power could fit in such a small, young body. He had to at least be a decade older, and yet this kid still ranked higher than him.
That was his general. The soldier ambled forward just a little bit more before he came face to face with the soldier. He quickly bowed respectfully- he was not to lose his head today.
“What is your business here, duifu?” The young soldier asked roughly, only his silhouette visible against the setting sun. The soldier never thought that he could be intimidated by such a young child, but he still was.
The soldier caught his breath and smiled in relief at the sign of the end of his errand. He kneeled, and presented the grand paper scroll with two hands ceremoniously. Anything else would be treason on his neck. “Jianjun.! His Majesty calls you back to the palace. He has successfully captured the capital!”
“Tell him to go fuck himself, that I’m resigning as a general, and that I’m coming for him in the future. He should’ve killed me when he had the damn chance. Tell him that too.” The soldier of small frame spat, venom laced in his voice, before disappearing with the quickly looming night. The soldier's eyes widened upon the disappearance, quickly looked around for his general. He called another soldier and alerted them. The prisoner general had finally, at last, escaped.
“I’ve got a brother to find.”