The Dou Qi Continent… and there is really something wrong with any society that agreed this would be an appropriate name, there weren't many tales of magic users and their effects, but rather, Dou Qi was the main star. Indeed, Dou Qi and mankind are one and the same in everyday life and as such, Dou Qi is extremely important in the continent. It could be called irreplaceable… as long as you are one of the top dogs that is. The right to rule, take, and kill as they please because they are strong. For strength itself is justice.
Ha! What a farce. My merciless starlight skewers the soul, illuminating its hidden deep that is normally concealed. I pulled a Meruem and shone over the Pangea sized continent like a second sun. As I descended the shadows cast by my light gladly tattled the hidden dissatisfactions of those who toil under the dictatorship of strength. I heard from the grapevines about the generic ethos and layout of their societies. In the North, there are people referred to as 'Unbeatable'. They fused their souls with wild animals and became barbarians, most prominent being the snakemen tribe. In the South, there are smart and talented high-class beast spirit clans such as the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe, lamia tribe, and Phoenix tribe. Then there are the eight venerable clans: Ancient clan, Spirit clan, Soul clan, Alchemist clan, Rock clan, Thunder clan, Flame clan, and the aptly named Xiao (Sad sound) clan who is now extinct. Also worth notice are the Jia Ma, Chu Yun, Mulan, and Luo Yan Empires.
Now that I had a preliminary surveillance of the Dou Qi continent and the main players within it I could calibrate my approach. Dou qi cultivators are a greedy lot, the overwhelming majority of said demographic were watching my approach as providence from the heavens. They wrongly saw this as their chance to steal fire from heaven, the descending of a worldly treasure capable of rapidly improving their cultivation. Surely this was the opportunity of a lifetime to have a fateful encounter and become a legend. Surely.
Well… hope and despair are two sides of the same coin. Never let it be said that I don't live up to expectations. I sweeten the deal by showering the Dou Qi continent with bounties of my soul harvested from my garden, fruits of the culturing aspects of garden cultivation. Even some 'minor' artifacts I could forge on the spot. My way to sweeten the pot. And, if such treasures just happen to be saturated with my highly infectious saint pneuma(qi)… well, what can you do about that? They might be easily absorbed but this doesn't mean they had been digested. On the contrary, they are like a malignant tumor just waiting to bloom.
My landing was suitably dramatic, a mushroom cloud blanketing the world, but both the stage and the proper time had yet to be set. I am still the greatest barrier expert I have ever met though, "
Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." I chanted with a simple hand sign in order to set up a curtain big enough to hold my fully manifested inner garden.
Said Curtain is imbued with the myth of my 3
rd, 5
th, and 6
th labors much in the same way of domain expansions and simple domains. Those who dare trespass into it will fall into an emptiness barrier turned labyrinth where they will be attacked by monsters created from their greatest fears. Anything less than a dou venerable will surely die; I have no interest in small fish after all. Of course, those that manage to pass it will be greeted by me. This is more a delaying tactic though, a group of half-saints working together in formation will be able to break through. I just want to make sure to gather a crowd for my debut.
I manifest ten hands of intent at my back, each one making a mudra while I myself perform the Vajra Mudrā, symbolizing raging heaven. "
Domain Expansion: Cosmic Arcadia!". While most gardens are a 'personal world' mine can be called a 'personal universe'. Expression of the grandeur of the universe that I seized in hand.
While still technically in the Artform level since it is a manifestation of the self instead of being something that I owned, the souls of my dead followers and permanent (dead) members of my Orphic House can be considered as my worker spirits. Their souls deeply stepped in my saint pneuma, as such enjoying the benefits of true cooperation of a spiritually unified fighting force. All of this enriches my garden, granting it gargantuan proportions. My 'peaks' are a complex of castle pavilions to house all of them, a great garden in all but name due to the sheer scale of my soul.
This granted me the power modifier akin to a mini tyrant inside of my inner garden, granting me a flat bonus of around 10.000 multiplier. Alas, due to my own absurd scale of life I am a bit removed from normal quantification. While previously my "base" was 910 men put together, my time in the Zodiac Crucible elevated me into a true paragon of the ideal human form. If I were to be dullard about it, I could simplify it to a hundred times modifier to said base, putting me at 91.000 men of 'power level'. This would put me a hair's breadth from the tyrant's power bracket, at respectable 910.000.000 men. Alas, this bonus doesn't multiply with augmentation from the heart blood, being more of a flat additive bonus to said base.
While it is a bit of a letdown that I can't simply stack multipliers over each other, cultivation isn't that simple. Which brings some unexpected perks though. My inner garden excels at saint pneuma storage due to my unique particularities and from the many benefits it brings the least among them is that this allows all my Thoughtforms to enjoy the benefits of a garden master.
Unfortunately, garden cultivation comes with many restrictions. I can't open my garden in more than one place at a time and doing a full manifestation takes a lot of time so I get the tyrant experience of being trapped inside a gilded cage. It is optimal for me to draw the adversaries to my territory, especially since I am declaring war on all cultivators of the world. While killing every single cultivator is not a viable choice for many reasons, most organizations will wisen up quickly of the long-term consequences of my expansion. And adding to that my own mission to secure the Origin qi, the most precious and coveted thing in the Dou qi Continent, it is better for me to play the part of villain. The conquering invader all sects must unite against.
Triggering a race for the Origin qi is a dangerous gambit but even if I am technically over a millennium old and a literal Ancient soul, in truth I never felt younger inside. The depth of emotion, the transiency of sensations, the spark of passion, all of it feels novel once more. It's as if I had been reborn. The wariness of the past almost felt like a half-forgotten dream that can no longer haunt me anymore. I want to see what this world has to offer… broken and wrong or not, people did their best to live in it. The least I can do is honor that even as I trample it… I owe them some joy in indemnity for all the grief.
And if I am going to rule them then I have to prove I have their best interest at heart. Through reputation, renown. From renown, credibility. In credibility, ethos. The fundamental human nature of people hadn't been changed or bred out of them. Even if they openly say that strength is the only virtue worth having, those without moral standards will be looked down upon. People who take everything for themselves will become the enemy of every spirit in this world.
By the same token, by performing achievements worthy of respect that benefit the spirits my words would carry undeniable weight. The more of these both I have the more power I have… but this also would mean that as soon as I lose these, I will also lose my right to speak for them.
It is harder than one might think which is why I am going to cheat. Before I went to my little nap, I mounted Nature's Bounty and Serenity in a geomantically privileged position. This foresight paid dividends as my tree treasures were similarly refined during my slumber. Since I no longer have access to the Lifestream while here the best I can do is rely on it. The piece of Mystical Swamp is proof that separation is an illusion, by using it I can commune with this world at a personal level like a deep scanner.
What it showed me was the cornucopia of sins of cultivators.
The bloody history fueled by senseless greed and blind ambition. Like crabs in a bucket, cultivators fought, killed, and betrayed in order to advance while sabotaging the rivals they envy. Scenes like those are why Bakkhos thought every man under heaven had the same potential. They were, every single one of them, equally worthless!
If I never hear another
You dare!s or
You are courting death!s for the rest of my life it still would be too soon. The mutilated soul fragment of Wu Fou had more worth than their entire life's work combined. It was a truly unsightly display of vice. Said that, some exceeded it more than others. Would you look at that? We found ourselves a volunteer to be made an example of!
I have to give it to the Soul clan. Their level of depravity and malice would incense the heart of most heroes to cinder on the spot. While both garden cultivation (up to artform level) and cultivation of virtue bit the soul to multiply itself, leading to the affirmation that 'cultivation can only make someone more of what he already is', cultivation of Dou Qi is 'something a person has'. In the Dou Qi continent, the strength of spirit is decided upon at birth. Maybe, as it grew older, it would strengthen a little bit, but there is no known technique to train your spirit to be stronger. Indeed, a cultivator may be a Dou God yet his soul might still be at the 1
st level of the Mortal State of the soul ranking. Magical beast clans are well known to neglect this aspect in comparison to humans even. That is why the best way to increase the soul ranking is to steal it from others, and what does an institution called Soul Clan specializes in?
The Soul Pavilion alone is infamous for capturing powerful cultivators, what most people don't know exactly is what they do with them. Indeed, hidden under layers upon layers of barrier formations is distilled soul essence robbed from its victims over the ages as they tortured the souls of captives for their cultivation. An unforgivable sin in the eyes of every spirit of the world.
Well, at least it makes things simple.
-//-
"Wolf whirlwind fang!" Screamed the brachy cultivator, a young man bearing the typical dark beauty of a main character.
His target, a senior in both age and cultivation was overtaken in surprise by his overly aggressive and reckless attack, being summarily overwhelmed and suppressed. This cost the senior in yellow robes greatly as a good deal of his blood was now serving to water the batch of glowing blue flowers the two cultivators were fighting over.
"A mere Dou Emperor dares to wound me, a Dou Ancestor? You are courting death, junior! I am going to grind your bones for pills and kill your entire family for this indignity!" Screamed the patriarch as the members of his sect did their best to assist and guard him.
"Ha! Big words from a barking dog about to be put down!" The young clanless prodigy countered brandishing the sword of silver-bright material, an artifact that he happened to stumble upon while investigating the falling star. "My name is Fuki Yu, Heaven itself smiles upon me, it is my destiny to rule over all that is! You can die with gratitude knowing you became a stepping stone of a future Dou God!" The young madman says as he recklessly charges to his doom drunk on the power he has stumbled upon.
Scenes like this were quite common around the site of the falling star. Cultivators all over the continent were rushing toward the falling star of promised victory following the trails of treasures it left behind. Like ants feasting on dropped sugar, the novel silver flower fallen from the heavens quickly became the most sought after ingredient in the world overnight. The reason was simple: one's cultivation potential was determined by the natural strength of one's body, something prefixed at birth. Even a heavenly battle technique couldn't close the gap created by one's natural talent. For this reason alone, the dragon and phoenix clans had the same standing as the eight ancient clans.
But merely by eating the moonflower the body experienced a subline refinement. It was pure potential just waiting to be taken. For the lesser cultivators from minor clans and lesser species there could not be anything more precious.
Yet those were the least among the bounties of the fallen star. Artifacts of heavenly quality could be found in spots bearing particularly concentration of these mysterious flowers. Some integrated themselves into the body of the first cultivator powerful enough to bear it, others were armaments or garments capable of cleaving through heaven and earth.
The news spread like wildfire and cultivators flocked in mass toward their deaths. It might be somewhat hypocritical to set up a sting operation by baiting people into committing crime. Wu Fou certainly wouldn't agree to it but if he searched for my help then he must know by now that I am too Greek to care. Being
good doesn't necessarily make one
right. This world is insincere, just because I learned to defy the rules of nature doesn't mean I have forgotten them. At the end of the day an enlightened animal remains an animal. Violence is always an option.
Hunger is our lowest common nature, a troublesome feature, sure. But even then, I have experienced for myself what happens when one tries to exercise. The festering sickness that is Sulfur was a hidden malady infirming my soul for decades. Like a yoke, it pulled me downward. No, it is better to accept the human condition and make the best of what we have than to attempt to reinvent the wheel. That is why enshrining the threat of violence as the glue that holds civilized society together has always been the first step taken by all civilizations.
Carrot and Stick, I have to make a show of force.
Even if high level cultivators can put the barrier down by working together this would leave them exhausted at the doorsteps of whatever lays in the inside of said barrier while surrounded by enemies. That is why sects exist in the first place, a cultivator is still a single person. It is relatively well known that from time to time the Dou Qi Continent would intersect with sealed demiplanes full of cultivation resources and treasures. Because of the vastness of the continent, there are bound to be cases of nameless figures who, by chance, happened upon a miracle that made them strong. Or, perhaps, there might be people who are bound by fate to discover strong techniques. In the land of Dou Qi, there is one famous sentence: If you find yourself stuck in a ditch or forsaken by the world, don't panic. Take two steps forward and maybe you'll find yourself stronger than ever before.
Clans then would operate as a supporting network. The ambush of a battered yet victorious returning party is so expected that even cultivators have set a procedure to deal with it. Parties too strong to be subjugated would temporarily tolerate each other in an uneasy truce while preying on weaker competitors while solidifying their base until the race properly starts. These gatherings are the equivalent of the Burning Man event for cultivators.
Of course, such a thing was never meant to last. The longer this goes on the bigger are the chances of power houses to step in, speed was the essence. It is the 'fever' Hakari likes to talk about, risking leaping before looking for the chance to seize power beyond one's standing. Even a pit of vipers can work together for the sake of survival. The cultivators work in formation to overload the Curtain that I raised and in doing so, doom themselves.
Here is a crucial but little known fact about jujutsu, there is no such a thing as a natural sure hit technique to its standard. Even something like Resonance transmits damage directly to the target through a voodoo. Since the body is considered a natural barrier to the soul every technique requires one to first find a way to breach it. That is why Cursed Speech is notorious, since the ears are a vehicle for information it manages to breach the body, it is the same principle to the evil eye. Indeed, the Lightning Discharge of Kashimo Hajime is the quintessential display of how to endow a sure hit to a technique – you just have to lure the fool into ingesting a part of your spiritual energy, then you can kill him at your leisure.
The collapsing Curtain fell like a shattered glass plane, pristine and perfect until it broke into a thousand pieces. The onlookers, Dou Ancestors, Dou Venerate, and a half dozen Half-Saints leading their pavilions were graced with the splendor of my inner garden as a last mercy toward those who were soon to be fertilizer for said garden.
The tsunami of saint pneuma from my garden caused the dormant shards of my power they had consumed to go overdrive. The spiritual contamination was overwhelming, the greed cultivators that spent all their lives grasping the spiritual energy of the world for themselves now we're being arborized into trees so they could keep on breathing through their mouths for the rest of their days to give back what they had stolen from every single spirit of the world.
It was certainly a haunting sight, even though for most of them it was a quick affair as dou qi does very little to protect the soul. The fact they reached such high levels of cultivators in the first place shows their innate potential. They wouldn't have been overwhelmed this quickly if it wasn't for their greed. The stronger cultivators didn't hesitate in abusing their strength to secure resources for themselves, resulting in the ensuing contamination being much higher than the rest.
If a Dou Ancestor is a pinnacle existence among most minor clans then a Dou Venerate can be considered a strong person no matter where they go in the continent. It is such a shame that they were so small minded. It was like shooting fish in a barrel, existences that could live up to ten thousand years were extinguished in an instant. Only the half-saints remain yet they were tortuous wretches wriggling in the ground like worms. Some screamed curses with their final breath, others pleaded for mercy. It was all inconsequential and unimportant. All my attention was on the gaze of the old monsters watching my grand trick with surprise and outrage.
In the end all those gem-like talents were just ferry boys for the true rulers of the continent. Dou Saints, the peak existences among even top tier powerhouses, the Dou Sheng is a realm so broken that logic starts to fail here. A one-star Saint can easily overpower dozens of Half-Saints, a two star can easily defeat a one star, and so on. Upon attaining the sixth star, a Practitioner can open a separate realm for others to inhabit, and the seventh can utilize all the Dou Qi within those realms, effectively becoming the world. A nine-star Dou Sheng is representative of the peak of the world, with no other existence coming close to that. Any casual action of a Dou Sheng can demolish cities, shatter mountains, and destroy space itself… and I just kicked a lot of them in the junk.
My little stunt marked me as an enemy of half of the venerable clans: Soul clan, Alchemist clan, Ancient clan, and Thunder clans. Not only that, the next generation of the Demonic Phoenix Tribe also got swallowed up. The Central Plains where I landed is their territory, there is no way they can't let it slide.
Me thought? I couldn't look more relaxed though. The midnight and pocket cat mantles and the armor of the Iron God were refined into the [Nyx Mantle] a darker than black fabric as smooth silk and bearing a stamp of the cosmos. At the moment I am wearing it as an extravagant himation & chiton, combined with my silver-bright laurel crown, combined with my chiseled port, well groomed hair and beard, and arrogant expression I was the perfect picture of Hellenic nobility.
Time to twist the knife.
Among the epithets of Dionysus, one that most stands out the
Bromios, "roaring". Although is a reference to many of Dionysus attributes, like the boisterousness of those who drink alcohol and become possessed by his spirit, at its root is a reference to his position as the twice born heir of raging heaven. The "roar of thunder" derived from the "thunderer".
The oldest generation takes the youngest generation in their hands. You are torn apart, limb by limb, before you speak your first word. You scream in a voice so loud that their ears bleed and the heavens shake in their frame (…)
I had wondered for some time, how did my elder brother in orphic faith manage to do that little trick of his. In hindsight it was obvious, the Conqueror was never known for his subtlety. Which suited both of them just fine. To speak with the voice of an era that rang out across the heavens, shaking all who heard. So loud no man nor woman was deaf enough to miss it. No closed doors could contain it. Daring one and all to deny him, eliciting the chorus of heaven to rage impotently in response.
I always had a talent for it, being the loudest voice wherever I went, and the quintessence that once had belonged to the Storm King and then refined in my millennium of seclusion only strengthened it. At my current standing I have the power of 91.000 men, in my virtuous heart I know that I stand at eye level with the Champion himself. The kind of power that excels even the best effort of any ordinary hero. By burning a single day of my life in a moment I can exert the power of 7.862.400.000 men put together.
I sacrifice ten thousand years of my life to the Olympic flame of my virtuous heart. But more than that I also fuel my heart flame with every iota of outrage, disdain, disgust, derision, and scorn evoked by the sins reported by this burdened earth battered by their worthless weight. Cultivation of virtue makes men more of what they already are. Good as well as bad. They become stronger, and more beautiful, and wiser beyond the years of any mortal soul. But with triumph comes tragedy. And those pains advance alongside them just the same. A cultivator's hate, like all the rest of their soul, was more than a non-cultivator's. A cultivator's shame can do more than ruin their appetite and make them sweat, but spit blood like they'd been run through with a sword. And my heart just happened to have enough space to contain the outrage of one hundred heroes combined.
It was time to share it with the world.
"OUR WORTH PREDECESSOR, WU FOU TAOIST, HAS LEARNED THE WAY TO GUILD THE PENGLAI FROM A SAINT MOUNTAIN ACROSS THE OCEAN, AND THUS BEGAN TO PROTECT ALL LIVES, ALL SPIRITS, ALLOWING THEM TO BE ENLIGHTENED AND REPRODUCE. THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF GARDEN CULTIVATION."
"YET LONE CULTIVATORS ALSO EXIST IN THIS WORLD! THEY GO AGAINST ALL THE LIVES, ANF GO DOWN A PATH OF EVIL. THEY POLLUTE AND EMPOVERISH THIS WORLD, AND THEY TAKE AWAY THE LIVES OF COUNTLESS SPIRITS!"
"THIS IS AN INSULT TO ALL GARDEN CULTIVATORS OF VIRTUE! I AM ZAGREUS, SON OF RAGING HEAVEN, AND I SHAW NOW START EXECUTE OF THE SOUL CLAN AS AN OFFERING TO THE ANCESTORS! IN ORDER TO MAKE ALL EVIL DOERS ON THE SAME PATH TO COWER!"
When you knock into the doors of heaven you are bound to get an answer. Though by now I figured out their answer is always the same.
******************************************************
***Zagreus' Voice Reach all Spirits Between Heaven and Earth***
******************************************************
The tribulation lightning was just fuel for what was to follow. Every spirit of the world turned toward my direction, from the Dou saints that rule as kings to the non-cultivators that live as slaves, from the magical beast capable of assuming human forms to the ones intelligent but trapped in a beast's frame. This Dou Qi Continent, a shard of the broken mosaic called Great Thousand World was once upon a time Wu Fou's Penglai. Just for a transient moment it remembers its garden master… and its rightful heir.
One moment was all that I needed.
The power of the actualized realm shouldn't be underestimated. A greater garden is something one "has" after all. That is probably where the idea of Dou Qi cultivation came from. Bypassing all the hassle of constantly trimming and balancing the garden for raw power. But for the garden master, all the spiritual energy of the garden is his to use as he pleases. I align my inner garden to the greater garden called Dou Qi Continent, using my barrier expertise for all that it is worth to create a circuit connecting the two gardens using an astrological formula.
The spiritual energy of this world is too chaotic to be of much use beside a hammer, but this still allows me to perform a retaliatory calamity strike. Something I have learned watching Aang go ballistic in the avatar state. Part of the reason he was so overwhelming and intense was because the world was imbalanced because of the one hundred years war. The avatar state would be far weaker in a peaceful world.
And far stronger in a destroyed one.
I stretch my arms wide as my pneuma erupts into the heavens. Above in the heavens my inner garden gets crowned by concentric rings of blinding light, a funnel of stars fed down into its center, called down from highest heaven. The sight was a searing brand upon the senses of all who could perceive it. I, the hand that draws the damning string.
The Island in the Sun.
To be precise, I am creating a circuit between the world, the sky, and the heavens. It is possible for jujutsu sorcerers to impart their innate technique into a simple domain, a unique extended technique that is a poor man's domain expansion. Using the Zodiac Algorism and Labyrinth's Golden Thread I made it on a much wider scale. Something only possible due to all the prep time that I had while these people sat on their asses. Something I shamelessly stole from both Kirschtaria Wodine and Damon Aethus.
The Dou Saints of the Soul clan will most definitely have the sense and alacrity to dodge this. But this will still cost them everything. Thousands of years of grim work going up in smoke with the effort of a day's work. Not a message anyone can take lightly.
Then I start blasting. A veritable star shower machine gun toward all cardinal directions, all bases, pavilions, and halls even remotely associated with them. Strategically speaking it was unwise. I had a gun pointed at the world's head, the perfect deterrent. Something that I likely can only perform once by exploiting the tribulation lightning as a broadcast signal that holds the whole barrier network together due to tribulation lightning's natural conductivity through pneuma. It is just a passing thought though. The main goal is to send a message. A display that none can ignore, something to give the downtrodden people of the world hope in a prosperous future.
A philosopher can cut a man down with rhetoric alone, my scalding words of censure fueled by my passionate heart were so much more. The more the one hearing "fit the mold" the worse my attack became. It was very much a targeted attack against the Soul clan, stunning even the stronger of them while I blew their clan sky high.
I had no illusions that I could defeat them all with one blow, but that doesn't mean I couldn't make it hurt. My intention was to traumatize every single lone cultivator to the same level Alexander did to the Free Mediterranean. I want them to fear my very name. To associate it with pain. The tribulation earned for what they did to this world, experiencing the terror of living under the boot of higher power.
The shadows were more than happy to carry their reply.
"You dare!?" Too numerous to count, followed by just as many "You are courting death!" and yet they didn't step in. They just watched and waited, anxious to be the first one to step inside the battle arena that I had prepared.
I smiled, knowing they could see it. I had not only humiliated a lot of them but I had also proved them all cowards. And they knew it too. Every second that I go unchallenged is an insult to their honor. Cultivation was its own assurance of success, but at the same time it became a clutch. When was the last time the stemmed saints that stood at the top of the world entered a fight where they knew they were likely to die? Crises like those are when people see
where everyone stands. Proof that they were cowards who needed overwhelming assurance. In the world of cultivation, the courageous die young while the coward lives another day. Fear has already gripped their hearts. After seeing the performance of two feats beyond the power of a Dou Saint they had been cowed.
Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Thirty seconds. Forty seconds. Fifty seconds. Finally, at the one minute mark, a blood red and night dark portal opened like a wound in the sky. The Soul clan stepped in. Not because they were braver than the rest but because they are the ones with the most to lose. More than they had already lost.
We, time to put on a performance.
-//-
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
Yeah, who would have guessed that eating exotic glowing flora that fell from the sky would be a bad idea? It always seems to work so well in the stories! Zagreus pulled a Bamboo Forest Institution and bamboozled the dou qi cultivators into a gold rush. By this point Zagreus plagiarized so many evil plans that League of Villains is going to sue him!
Narratively speaking this was more my way to clean the board from trivial pieces. A peanut gallery of extras to glaze the main character might seem cool at first but the novelty dies off quickly. If you have read the light novel or manga then you know the Soul Clan are challenging Zagreus in his game. Only Dou Saints remain and half of them are ghosts!
