A terrible quiet remained outside as snow continued to fall down from the skies. With the death of the emperor, and the escape of the Azure Dragon, the heavens themselves felt weaker now. Qi felt weaker, starting to strain and wither out in the grasp of cold wintery hands. It was hard to imagine that a war was going on.
But such was the nature of war. The frontlines of this battle were being fought across all borders of the empire. It was not the kind of war that I’d seen or heard of in history. It was closer to a disease. One that had spread across the lands, through the world at large and now it was coming for us.
This wasn’t a war for land, treasure, ideological disputes or the gain of those in power. No, it was something much simpler and much worse. It was a battle for survival. Perhaps for all of humanity at large.
The scales had shifted in the balance of the eternal war, and for the first time… the threat of humanity losing was starting to become real.
I clenched my fists, feeling tensions rising. What we had to do was known, though that did not make the task ahead easier. But being forced to sit still at these times was even worse than that. Restlessness filled me and I struggled to distract myself from the constant thoughts.
We’d be facing an army. An army of demonic beasts, and demons at large. But worst of all was the threat that came from within. Of cultivators losing their path, spirits being overtaken by wraiths, the threats coming from the beyond, from that dark and cold place of nothingness that existed out there.
I closed my eyes. I’d found myself there at one point. That cold, seething anger that slowly built up underneath. With the protection of the Heavens fading… more and more people would fall prey to those. Already, I’d begun sensing the rise of miasma in the hearts of cultivators.
It was subtle, and fine enough that they would not notice it, not ‘til it grew and started to corrupt their minds and thoughts.
They needed hope. The empire needed hope. Needed something or someone who could show them a path ahead, show them some way out of all of this.
It was a great ask, a great responsibility. To lead the empire, to become their hope? But I knew what power such things had. I recalled the way my own sect members often looked at me.
I was greater than just myself. My image is greater than the person that I am. It is a message, a messenger, a new path.
Hope.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
It was a nice phrase, but I’d always thought that it was shallow. It implied that just by changing yourself, you could change the world. If it was so easy, everyone would do it right? But I think I finally understood it a little better now.
Be the change.
You had to start somewhere. To begin and take the first steps on the path, nothing would ever begin if you do not. I recalled the vision I had seen upon waking up for a second time in this world. I had no memories of my life, no memories of who I was, only the knowledge that had inherently been inside of me, as if looking at a stranger’s soul.
But in that moment of confusion and fear, I’d found a spark, I’d found others, found the Old man, found Labby, Sheldon, Yan Yun, Su Lin, Zhang, Granny Lang, Yin. Everybody. And step by step, little by little, I’d begun to change the world.
And I wasn’t alone.
I looked at the ring on my finger. A small, almost innocuous looking ring, containing around a quarter of all the spirit jade I’d received. This was the highest grade spatial storage they’d had and even it had struggled to hold it all.
Yu Lan, the auction house manager, had kindly given this to me without any cost. I was not surprised, after all I’d made her a fortune. But even if not… given the current circumstances, I think she would’ve done so even without that. It’s partly why I’d asked for her help in managing all the money.
Guoren, the Lord’s estate manager in Azure city, had risen up to task to help me sort it all out and manage everything. Zhou Fang, who’d remained behind, had decided to help him out and I’d left all my fortune in their safeguarding and hands. Most of it was being used to fund research regarding the war-front and in all the logistics and protections that needed to be in place. A bunch of craftsmen and blacksmiths were already being employed by them, using the help of the five divinities and my divine texts and their more non-volatile and non-magical copies, alongside the patents that I’d sold for different working modules, and a dozen more prototypes that were not fully functional just yet. Everybody was coming together to make this happen.
The portion that I’d personally taken… there was a project I’d left with Yin. After we’d successfully developed a powerful weapon. An idea I’d had, though one that’d cost quite a lot of energy to fuel.
Even this was not enough, but it’d be a start.
“You seem deep in thought, Lu Jie,” the Lord asked and I looked up at him.
“A bit difficult not to be, with everything going on,” I said.
He looked outside with a thoughtful expression on his face. “We live in difficult times, that is true. There have been escalations in conflict before. But never to this extent, and never with such a threat. But that is precisely why we must focus ourselves, sharpen our wills and fight.”
“I’m ready to do what I need to. It is just… difficult to sit still and do nothing while I’m here. Even if I know that’d be the best thing to do right now.”
Lord Zhou looked at me, and then at Yan Yun and Liuxiang seated next to me. “The journey ahead of you is going to be treacherous. A lot relies on your success. Far too much. These are not tasks we’d want to ask of children, but our hands are tied. I understand your impatience, but it is imperative that you be calm and prepared for anything that may come next. Take this time to settle down, to prepare for what is to come. Meditate and think over what you must do to move ahead,” Lord Zhou said.
Liuxiang glanced towards me. “There is a technique in the Shie clan, where one can conjoin their spirits with others, allowing us to meditate together. I’d actually looked into it after remembering what Lu Jie had done to cure Zhang’s core and enter his spirit, and have made some adjustments to the art.”
“I don’t see any harm in it. It’s going to take a few days before we reach the Seventh Peak anyway,” Yan Yun said.
I looked at the two of them and nodded in agreement. “Let’s do it then.”
Liuxiang nodded, extending her hand, grabbing both mine and Yan Yun’s. I felt her Qi flow into me, tugging at my spirit and pulling me inwards.
I began to meditate, matching the flow of Liuxiang’s Qi and a second later, I felt Yan Yun’s spirit as well, mingling together as the three of us began to meld together.
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And then, I was gone.
***
I opened my eyes and found myself standing in familiar darkness. The only difference was that this time, I was not alone.
The giant figure of the dragon-turtle-snake Xuanwu remained ahead of me. And just a little in front of him were both Labby and Ash. Labby jumped up as she saw me, running up to me and tackling me to the ground—or the darkness that served as a ground—with a hug.
“Great Master!” She exclaimed happily, dark black and purple lightning crackling all around her.
I looked up and saw Yan Yun and Liuxiang looking down at me as well, both present here inside my spirit.
Ash walked closer, pulling Labby back and letting me get back up. The giant wolf was also in his human form.
“Hey there you two, hope you’ve been alright,” I said. I knew they were alright. In here, I could sense them much better than when they remained on their own. But it felt appropriate to ask anyway.
“Good,” Ash said.
“Labby has been training! The big turtle has been teaching her how to focus her lightning more, and use it correctly.” I patted Labby’s head at that.
“Labby wants to be of help against the demons,” Labby said, her expression quite serious and I gave her a nod.
“Too many people. This is not a place of gathering…” Xuanwu said, snorting as he looked down at all of us. glancing at Labby. “Nor a nursery for children.”
“We can use your help,” I told Xuanwu, ignoring his comments—the turtle just didn’t know how to not be grumpy anytime and I knew he didn’t mean it as much as he put on—as I walked closer to the divine beast. “I’d like to progress on my path. To take the next step and grow stronger. I know that things are not meant to proceed this quickly… but I don’t have the time to wait, or the luxury to do things the normal way.”
“You’d abandoned the normal way the moment you’d accepted Chi within yourself. There is nothing normal about the path you have followed from there onwards.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “So how can I proceed on my path? I need to grow stronger, strong enough to contest Yang Shen if I have to. And clearly I’m not his match right now.”
“The answer is obvious. You must seek what answers remain to be sought. The path you follow no longer has any realms or measures of strength. But that does not mean you do not possess strength. There is a bundle of Chi inside of you, which fuels you. It grows as the domain of the Chi you are connected to grows. That, combined with our strength, and the Azure Dragon’s strength, and you’d be on par with any of the Divinity in strength, even if you remain exactly where you are on your path.”
I paused at that. I’d noticed that by now, that my path was non-standard and a lot of my strength was external, owing to the power I could utilize from things tied to my spirit.
“Then… what should I do? Will it be enough?” I asked.
“You must do what you have always done. Your path does not seek strength, and so it does not reward you with strength when you walk it. Not directly at least. But you believe knowledge is power, and so when you understand more, your power grows with your understanding. There are things that remain still for you to understand. And when you do, your ability will increase.”
I thought about that. “The fourth law… I will need to find it. Whatever it is. But I don’t know where to begin looking. And… will that actually help me beat Yang Shen?”
“If your goal is purely to beat Yang Shen, then build weapons. Do not spend time searching for your path. Create tools and fight with them. You will have the required strength from us. And from others.
But if you wish to match Yang Shen… then seek what your truth is. Answer it, find where it lies, and that will give you the insight you require.”
“Will that let me create a domain?” I asked.
Xuanwu laughed.
He glanced towards Yan Yun and Liuxiang. “These two need to build their domains. They too need to seek their own truths. They’ve found some answers upon it already, but they need to seek what comes beyond them,” The divine beast turned back to face me again. “But you already have yours. You have had yours for quite some time.”
“What? But… I… how?” I asked, confused.
Xuanwu harrumphed. “Child, you reach out and bind the world to yourself and then make it a part of you. You are connected to the tree of rebirth, life and death itself join together within your soul, you represent the cycle of souls and contain the legacy of an old era.”
“You’ve spent decades in the expanse of the in-between, at the edge of darkness and found genesis inside of it. It was you who stopped our rampage. Who convinced us that this world could yet be saved, when we had decided to begin anew and give it a rebirth. No matter how fleeting, how ephemeral it had been, it had been real, and it still exists. It is a shadow, hidden inside of you. You had reached that realm, you had reached a realm beyond it. The memory palace you inhabit exists within that space, the souls of those you’ve helped to yourself, all that is tied to you joins back together to this,” Xuanwu said, his voice rising in power as he continued, bringing his face close to me, almost as if angry.
“Do not be so blind. Look within yourself. Ask the right questions. Why when divinities fail, does your spirit hold us, hold the legacy of an entire era? Do you think of yourself as gifted? What you have is something born out of creation, and not something you simply possessed from the beginning. Recall those memories, the darkness, the world you had forged, remember what that meant, what it means to harbor this space that can hold us, that can hold life and death and rebirth, a world within a world and more.”
I stared up at the dragon-turtle in surprise. I felt a little stupid for not thinking about all this earlier. Vague memories of a dream that spanned a lifetime passed in my mind. My memory of that period was… suitably, forgotten and lost entirely within the dream itself. But pieces of it lingered, echoes in the darkness that reflected something that had once been. And what had once been in this place… could be brought back to life with will.
“You seek at last. But we do not have enough time… perhaps, some help will hasten your progress,” Xuanwu said.
The world rippled all around me and I found myself sinking into that echo, into the shadows of a lost time and place within the darkness, beyond reality and timeless, a fraction of existence that had once embodied a whole other life.
As I sank, I saw the three spirit rings in the sky.
Unity. Genesis. Harmony.
They shone like beacons, humming with power. A representation of my path. Together they spun, like planetary bodies looking upon this world of spirit, as if casting a spell to bring back the visions of the past.
The darkness rose around me, flowing over my body and swallowing me whole.
I watched Xuanwu’s shadow flicker from underneath, before losing myself to the darkness within the darkness.
***
The world shivered around Xuanwu, before settling once more as Lu Jie disappeared into the darkness.
“Is Great Master going to be okay?” Labby asked nervously, looking up at the divine beast.
“He will be alright. He is simply heading to a part of himself deeper still. There are layers to a spirit, and some are less easily accessible than others. When he has found the answers he needs, he will return to the surface,” Xuanwu said.
“Will he wake up in time?” Yan Yun asked, with some concern.
“If he does not, then we will wake him up. You need not be concerned. And it is not just him that must work. If you wish to support him and accompany him, then you two must also seek the truth within yourself,” Xuanwu said, turning towards Yan Yun.
“You, lost child. Your path is a different kind, but not unforeseen. But it lacks identity. It lacks your self. You wish to help others, without knowing how to help yourself. We can see the wounds on your spirit and the desires that have shaped you to be who you are, but your answer does not extend to yourself, and thus, is it truly whole? Seek the path you wish to pursue, seek who you are beyond those around you, do not look for your reflection, seek the you that exists outside of existence,” Xuanwu said, the world rippling once more.
Yan Yun bowed her head, as mist rose around her, before taking her away. Xuanwu turned at last to Liuxiang.
Liuxiang bowed respectfully.
“You simply need to stop lying to yourself. You broke one lie, the shell that protected you, the mask was taken off, but did you ever truly find yourself underneath that mask? Your past dictates your present, you are all that exists in the context of all you have been, but what are you if not a shadow of the hand which governs your fate? When you’ve found the lie, then you will also find your truth, and the world will reflect it,” Xuanwu said as Liuxiang vanished as well.
The divine beast paused as he saw Labby looking up at him with sparkles in her eyes.
“…it is still too early for you, child.”
Labby deflated in disappointment, and Ash shook his head, transforming into a wolf before bringing her with him to train together once more.
Xuanwu sighed to himself. There were far too many children to take care of.