Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

@yrsillar Omake for the Omake Throne
This was actually hard to finish. It was really easy to begin, but then I kind of lost my way when I tried to finish it. The spirit scene is weird. I'm not going to redo it, but I'm a little disappointed by how it turned out. It did not turn out how I original planed it to go, but I feel like it fits the canon of the universe better. This whole piece kind of feels like that. I had this idea for the story, but when I tried to turn the idea into a story , it did not turn out how I wanted it to turn out. This omake takes place after the invasion.

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Deep Breaths. The hand symbols for relaxation passed through Han Fang's mind. The shopkeeper's comment passed through his mind: Will that be three packs of food with one for a spirit beast? written in black ink that stained the page. The shopkeeper assumed he was running an errand for Han Jian like he was a service boy. A service boy.

Deep Breaths. He steady his breathing by following the breathing patterns listed in the Rushing Mountain's Shaking Path cultivation art in hope that it would calm him down. A Service Boy. He wanted to scream, to hurt everyone that thinks he's just a service boy, but doing something like that would hurt Han Jian and the Han clan's reputation. He hated himself for that. He hated that he cared how his actions affected the Han Clan. They didn't care about him. He is just another toy for Han Jian, to encourage the rising star to cultivate: grant his wish to adopt the mauled servant boy, give him one of our honored cousins, send him to the sect to find his love for competition. All in hopes that he would--

Deep Breaths. Han Heijin stared at him. He must have been following him from when he first left. He knew that Heijin was awake. His head was peeking from the alleyway between two buildings. Where are you going? He heard Han Heijin speak, mostly in his head. His ears only picked up on growls that sounded something like words, but spirit beasts relied more on intent than on actually sounds. Fang focused on shifting his spirit in just the right way as he walked past Heijin. Just going somewhere. It was beautiful, he could just hear it, not out loud, but in his spirit, the sound of his voice. It was distant and distorted, but he loved it anyways. That was why he loved talking to Heijin. Spirit Beasts relied on the expression of the soul to communicate. It took him weeks of practicing, especially because Heijin was not bonded to him, but he could express his thoughts now and sometimes filter them into glorious words: Words in his voice.

You didn't tell us you were leaving.

I don't have to tell you where I'm going. Fang mouthed the words as he tried to express his thoughts. He almost smiled.

Don't do what Xuilan did. Heijin moved. His qi flared as he caught up to Fang and blocked his path. Lazybones needs you. The hand symbols for Lazybones needs you pushed itself in his thoughts. He couldn't help but remember when Jian and him spent the whole afternoon trying to create the hand movements for Lazybones after Heijin called Jian that for being laxy, but he also couldn't help but remember Jian crawling back from the gardens in terrible pain after he failed to advance to the third realm or how he nursed him back to health, standing guard against anything that would dare threaten his friend, his brother. His heart hurt. He needed this, but Han Jian needed him.

He needs you. Who would he have left if you never came back.

He would have you and Yu. Han Fang stopped. Talking like that puts a strain on his spirit. He quickly signed the rest to Heijin. Besides I am not doing anything as dangerous as Xuilan. It's a known tribulation in the Argent Sect. The worst failure was a few broken bones and issues when trying to cultivate for a few weeks, and the best successes were powerful arts that led their cultivator to a eso…. Han Fang's hands stumbled, trying to recall a sign he only used once or twice, before giving up, strange qi type.

Heijin straightened his shoulders and growl escaped his mouth. You can't lie to me. I knew you almost as long as Lazy Bones. Han Fang didn't tell him about the report that a hundred years ago a yellow artist met a cyan spirit after the tribulation and gained tutelage from it, or the report that a yellow had advanced to both Bronze and Green realm in a single night under the potent qi that was said to appear during some of the tribulations, or the rumor that a yellow, two hundred years ago, had an easier time cultivating after the tribulation as if his talent had increased. He didn't take Heijim about the third realm cultivator, who sought it out and never returned. Only for a wisp, an impression of her domain and her life, found days later screaming about the sea of lights. But those cases were never confirmed and Heijin would try to stop him if he knew, so he cycled his qi, reflecting once more on the teachings of the Rushing Mountain's Shaking Path.

Thunder qi blazed through his leg meridians as he followed the lessons of his art and performed a flawless Thunderous Step. He jumped over Heijin and for an instant he was weightless, and then he wrapped water qi around his body. When he hit the ground, there was no friction as he moved on the ground with the same speed as when he was flying only growing faster as the water qi pushed him forward. Mountain, water, and thunder qi all pushing him towards a single goal. Become like the lightning and begin. Become like the mountain and only let the greatest of forces move you. Become like the river and let nothing stop you, only change the journey. Heijin wouldn't be able to follow. For all his talk of calling Jian lazybones, he ignored developing a continuous movement technique, instead relying on small bursts of speed and his own physical body.






The water qi pumped through his meridians pushing him forward. Han Fang couldn't stop even if he wanted to. The Raging Current demanded movement and progress towards his goal. He needed to reach the third realm and something more. The Han family won't spoil him with medicines and teas to soothe the aches and pains that came with failing an advancement. He isn't the heir's son. After he enters the green realm, no one will make arts for him in mind or give him the most ancient and refined arts of the Han clan, only half finished arts made as stepping stones for personal arts of high greens and cyans. He needed something to stand on his own two feet.

One more Thunderous Step and he was in the sky again. Qi from security formations brushed against his skin, almost triggering, just almost. Water and Thunder qi were mixing, blending, and pouring out of him, and then he cleared the marketplace and entered the wilderness of the outer sect.

I'm not a service boy. I'm a brother. When those things came from ground, he stood by Jian as brothers, not as a liege and his subject. He has always stood by Jian's side. When he landed on the grass, he gathered his qi back into his dantian and began to walk towards the meadow. He had memorized the map before he left, even visited it in the day. All of the research he gathered said that all that was needed was to cutivate in the Stilled Meadow in the night.

Deep breaths. His throat ached as he tried to slow his breathing from running away from Heijin. Last year, the medical aid at the tournament was furious when she thought that some outer disciple snuck in such potent poison that it could cause this amount of damage. She screamed about how he needed a skilled late fifth realm healer or even a sixth realm to have any hope of repairing his throat. He explained to her that it was caused by an earlier accident before he came to the sect, but what her words implied never left his mind.

He could have been healed. It was just too expensive to waste on a servant boy. He knew of the wonders of cultivation: all the stories Jian told him about the great cultivators of the Golden Fields provenance. He knew that the kind of cultivator needed to fully heal him would require payment that the clan would only waste on the direct heir or the current leader. Even if he knew that they would not pay such a tremendous amount of money even for Han Jian, he still felt wronged. How could he expect the clan to waste so much money on someone who was made a Han just to placate Jian. A toy or a retainer until he stalled in his cultivation and kept Jian from advancing. He perfected his second realm foundation, cultivated to the very edge of both the silver and yellow realms, both from the fear of ending up like Han Jian if he failed and knowing that he would receive no medicine to speed his recovery like they did with Jian. He would have to pay for any medicine and treatment with his sect allowance and his savings.

As he neared the Stilled Meadow, the night quieted. The little fairies and sprites always dying, living, and being created throughout the sect did not travel here for some reason. The local qi, that ran through the ground and the trees, was more dense and potent then the qi in his courtyard, but it was muted. It was hard to sense in a similar way to a cultivator quieting the qi under their skin. Han Fang pulled on the qi, but only wisps of it poured from the ground. The rest of the qi kept following through the veins the ground undisturbed by his efforts.

The trees abruptly ended to surrounded a single meadow full of grass. There was no wind blowing or animals chirping and not a single fairy As Han Fang stepped into the meadow the world changed. The wind qi was explosive, it bubbled and danced through the wind blowing at Han Fang's hair. The ground pulsed with metal, earth, and mountain qi and other types qi that Han Fang could just barely sense. Echoes of instruments and whispers passed through his ears, as music and thunder qi brushed against his spirit. A thousand prickles of light appeared in the night sky filled with darkness qi. Heaven qi filtered down from each prickle like the falling sand from the vestige of a sandstorm. In the center of the stars, were two circles, one the white of the full moon and the other the color of a noon day's sun. Moon qi and Sun qi mixed and twisted within each other as the moonlight and the sunlight shined on the meadow's ground. Wood qi flowed through the grass as water qi flowed through a little stream that both began and ended in a small lake. Where the river met the lake, the water qi mixed and became lake qi and the lake qi mixed and became water qi. All of the qi shifted and mixed, one type of qi becoming another and another and another till it became itself again.

The pressure caused by the intensity of qi was insubstantial. It didn't hurt Han Fang's soul, instead it gently caressed it. Han Fang knew instinctively that unlike the qi surrounding the Stilled Meadow he could cultivate it as easily as breathing. He wanted to cultivate it. If the meadow was as potent as it was now all the time, he could fail his third realm breakthroughs and he would be at peak 2nd realm in an instance, and one he advances to third realm, the beginning stages would be a breeze. Was this how that cultivator got their "increased talent," a cultivating site as powerful as this would benefit a cyan cultivator. All he had to do was take a single strand of this qi and the tribulation will start. If it was even a tribulation. Thoughts passed through Han Fang's mind. The qi here would be too dense for a second realm cultivator to cultivate safefly. All his information said that to trigger the tribulation was to simply cultivate in the meadow, but a second realm who simply cultivates here would injure their spirit and body. All Han Fang needed to do was be careful.

Deep Breaths. Han Fang sat down under the shade of the tree. He pulled on the thunder qi in the air, the water qi in the river, and the mountain qi in the ground, and started the circulations written in the Rushing Mountain's Shaking Path. He did it slow and steady or else the qi would rage inside him and injure his spirit. It was easy. He would return here to attempt both of his third realm breakthroughs after telling Han Jian and Fan Yu of this place. He wouldn't attempt a breakthrough, until he was used to the potency of the qi here, just absorb enough qi to refill his dantian. It was peaceful here. The qi flowed through each other, dancing in the wind or the ground or the water as if the qi itself was a spirit. It was pleasing, comfortable, and easy to focus.

And then he lost control of the qi.

He tried to size back control, but he failed. After failing to properly control the Qi with finesse, he threw the full force of his spirit against the qi. If the qi wounded his soul, it could damage his foundation, he would have to spend months cultivating to fix the damage before he attempts to break into the third realm, but the qi didn't hurt him. It coiled around itself right above his dantian.

Why are you still allowing others to think of you as a service boy?

What's wrong with being a service boy? You were fine with that title before?

Leave him, Start over.

Spirits. There were spirits here, he didn't even detect them. He felt a distortion in the local qi and then a ball of fire qi lashed at him. It passed harmlessly through his skin, but it didn't come out the other side. A new voice entered his head.

Isn't the brotherhood you have between each other enough? Why do you need others to see it?

I don't.

You are bothered by them believing what they believe.. Another voice entered his head.

How many spirits are… Is this the tribulation?

Yes, Many spirits responded, more spirits than there were before.. Han Fang still couldn't sense them.

How do I pass?

You don't. He was going to fall behind. He wouldn't be able to stand on his own feet.

Do not fear [ ]. The spirit paused. Do not fear, human. There is a solution, we just haven't seen a cultivator perform it.

The hand signs for What do you want? Appeared in his head.

What an interesting way of communicating?

Just answer our questions or don't answer them.

Not answering them could be a solution?

Why did you quit formation work?

I... It was only a passing interest.

Lies.

Lies,

Lies.

Why are you lying?

It's the truth. The foreign qi slowly expanded, pushing against his spirit. He hurriedly told them. It was only a minor interest. I only focused on it for another reason.

Your throat?

Do you wish to fix it? Another spirit whispered in his head. He still couldn't see them, but when he focused on that voice an impression of a garden appeared in his head.

Yes.

Do you regret getting the injury? Another spirit said. Was that a hint of an accusation.

No.

Liess. More spheres of qi appeared in his soul. They all slowly expanded against his spirit causing him pain.

It is complicated. A sense of acceptance came from one of the spirits.

Back to the boy?

Han Jian?

Yes.

No, ask him other questions.

You came here to gain power, yes?

Yes.

So that you didn't have to make him worry about you.

Yes.

I said other questions.

If your passion for him is so great, why have you not told him. If you claim him, his family will accept you and if they don't accept you bend them to your will.

Not that kind of passion. Brotherly Love

Is there a difference?

Yes.

Lies. A spheres of qi expanded in his soul, but less than before.

There is a difference.

You wish to claim him.

I wish to do no such thing. One of the qi spheres expanded even more.

You wish that he is always by your side. That he will not worry about you, but you can protect him from all those that would hurt him. You want his love.

Brotherly love. We are brothers.

Lies

Lies. All of the sphere expanded but five.

No, no it's not.

Yes that is a lie. You are only but a servant. Your mind is open to us. We can see through you.

We are brothers.

Lies.

Lies.

Lies. The same spheres expanded.

That is the truth, we are brothers.

Silence filled his mind.

And then there was pain, so much pain.


He left the meadow after waking up in pain. While he didn't seem to be too badly injured, both his body and spirit were sore and stretched, but he was happy. He didn't want any power from spirits that would not accept his brotherhood with his brother, Han Jian.