A Poison to break the body, a Curse to untether the mind and soul. Dean Fang Yi, called Mind Swallowing Poison Lord, understood that these two facets of cultivation were intimately connected. For, in truth, they are the same profession with differing methods of delivery. Where one brews a concoction, the other anneals negative energies and qi. Both debilitate, enact suffering and ultimately kill their victims. There was a nuance to those two paths and she understood the differences, being well versed in both. Fang Yi's passion was brewing poisons that acted like curses, forming curses that acted like poisons, and synthesizing both into potent combinations.
As a young scholar, she had made a name as a lethal poison master who would use curses to debilitate and cripple opponents into critical openings. She was not as fast in her cultivation as others but compensated this with deeper foundations than many elite scholars of the Noble Knowledge Sect. As time flew and Fang Yi grew to appreciate the other aspects, growing her repertoire of insidious and slow-acting poisons in addition to the flashy and powerful poisons, so too did her curse arts grow more complex and increasingly more difficult to detect. Fang Yi had even begun to supplement her repertoire with some illusory techniques.
By the time she became a Core Formation Elder, or Professor as some in the Sect might call her, Fang Yi was famed not only for the breadth and depth of her knowledge in all aspects of Arts, both orthodox and demonic, but for her terrifying skill in combat even outside the Insidious Poison Maze. In time she was given responsibilities as a Sect Warden, an Elder responsible for ensuring the proper exposure of the Disciples to sufficiently rigorous combat and experience in practical applications of their knowledge. In time she would, as many teachers do, learn the frustrations that come with those saddled with incompetent and seemingly lazy students, but also the joy of teaching eager and hard-working disciples. It rankled her sensibilities! Only the dedicated, only the fated, and only those truly [Noble] deserve admittance to the Sect. Only those who could contribute would be allowed to prosper in her Sect. Sect doctrine dictated that the spread of Knowledge was itself a [Noble] pursuit, Fang Yi found herself more jaded and disdainful of the forces who regularly refused to be ennobled by their offerings. Worst were the barbaric animals of the Bear Enslavement Sect, unwilling to understand that such trifling matters were for a more Noble purpose and not without reason, and Strength Purity, blinded by inflexible beliefs in their self-righteousness.
Many decades she spent on expanding the borders of the maze, testing tens, hundreds, thousands of concoctions against the Poison Crushing Towers, abducting mortals, disciples, experts, and even the occasional elder for experimentation of her many brews and curses. Until it came to her. A way to inspire the worthy, dispose of the unworthy, and tempt those outside the reach of Sect to their Dao all in the form of one Curse and Poison combination so interconnected, seamlessly melded that even a Nascent Soul would not be able to tell one where one ended and the other begun. Fang Yi conceived of a Heart Curse in a deranged moment of enlightenment.
Poisons typically reside in the body, and curses typically disrupt the mind by disrupting a cultivator's meridians, Heart Curses, however, are simultaneously easier to detect yet harder to deal with taking root and parasitizing a dantian. Once placed, the heart curse festers with every negative emotion—anger, jealousy, fear—causing the victim to experience hallucinations, physical pain, and an erosion of their spiritual energy. The curse may bind the victim's fate to another, forcing them to either destroy or protect that person, depending on the curse's design. Some Heart Curses can only be broken through extreme acts of self-sacrifice, while others may require rare elixirs, or confronting through a battle in the mindscape. These types of curses not only threaten the victim's life but also their Dao, potentially leading them to demonic deviation, crippling, or death if left unchecked.
The more sophisticated curses bind to the cultivator's very essence, entwining with their aura and cultivation. They don't possess power of their own but feed on the victim's life force and qi, much like a malignant tumor. Though they are not without their benefit, these curses enhance the afflicted strength, granting them temporary or permanent surges of power, inspiration, or techniques. Commonly they come at a steep cost, increasing the drain on the host's vitality with each burst of energy, and their cultivation becomes increasingly unstable. Unlike conventional curses, the Heart Curse evolves with its host, growing stronger as it intertwines more deeply with the victim's soul and cultivation, creating a precarious balance. The more power the host channels through the curse, the more of their own essence is siphoned off. If the curse isn't controlled, it can lead to a deadly feedback loop, where the cultivator becomes consumed by their own ambition, warping their body and mind in pursuit of greater strength.
Some Curse users, victims, and the like can circumvent some of these consequences through external means, sacrificing the blood or energy of others to delay the inevitable toll on the host. However, the cost is never truly avoided; the cultivator's very foundation becomes corroded over time, creating a volatile existence where the surge of power is always balanced against the risk of total collapse. Unlike poisons or more simple curses, Heart Curses evolve alongside its bearer, adapting and growing as it feed on both internal and external sources of energy. It corrupts the very foundation of the host's cultivation, turning their inner world into a battlefield where the curse vies for control. The host's thoughts become erratic, plagued by hallucinations, emotional outbursts, and physical manifestations of the curse.
More insidiously some Heart Curses explicitly develop a personality and entwines itself with the host's consciousness, blurring the line between self and curse. It functions like a sentient, ever-hungry entity, whispering in the recesses of the host's mind, seeking dominance and often offering power in exchange for control. As the curse strengthens, it exerts an ever-growing influence, threatening to subsume the host's will entirely. The relationship is symbiotic yet adversarial: the host gains immense strength, but the curse continuously pushes for more—more blood, more sacrifices, more power. In time some of these Cursed Spirits can stabilize, subsuming or synthesizing with the original personality creating a more robust if morally bankrupt cultivator. Most, however, will degrade turning their host and self into little more than ravening beasts.
Only the desperate, foolish, or unlucky willingly implant such things into themselves. Only those powerful, clever, and lucky can survive a Heart Curse long enough to derive any benefits or completely subjugate their alter-ego. In the past Fang Yi had read of how one of the most powerful Cultivators the Sect had ever produced had been implanted with a Heart Curse at Qi Condensation, effectively sealed it at Foundation Establishment, subjuated it at Core-Formation, before finally subsuming it as a Nascent Soul emerging as a Spirit Severing powerhouse before leaving the region to never to be seen again.
Why is this important? For, as the old adage goes, the only difference between a poison and a medicine is the dosage. What Fang Yi hypothesized was if a young Cultivator, or perhaps a robust Mortal could be implanted with a weakened Heart Curse, one unable to fully subsume its host, made to act in a more symbiotic relationship with the host, or tricked into thinking it and the host were one and the same, a continuous cycle of refinement could be induced and create a perfect and truly [Noble] cultivator.
Decades passed, before Fang Yi was successful in the creation of her first trail-ready Prototype Heart Curses.
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'Not my best plan. WHY THE FUCK! Did I not have more contingencies?' asked Fang Yi in the privacy of her own mind. Her passion project, as her fellow Grand Elders might put it, faced a…major setback.
She had been planning on personally implanting one of her more promising specimens, and if she was honest the most promising, into one of her other investments. A recently captured "Expert" from the Broken Arrow lands formed an interesting Dao. He had been someone she'd seen fit to develop. He was so promising once. Xi Tong, he was called. A brilliant spiritual doctor, one with a mind with but the barest hints of [Nobility]. He had become a mainstay at one of the Poisin Curshing Towers catching her attention through his "secret" and "depraved" interrogations of some of the wastrels she would allow the Righteous to cut their teeth on. Xi Tong appeared to be one of those souls who could break free of the blinders the Righteous imposed on themselves, but he had found a "reason" to stay, to become "better". Fang Yi had already prepared a strike force to capture and recruit him but after he became a disappointment she decided that she might as well cash in and use him as a Seedbed for her precious Heart Curses. One of the most crucial to the proper nurturing for her variant Heart Curses was Foundation Pillars. Her little masterpieces were gluttons for these still forming Daos. Now some might suggest that feeding them a Core would be more cost-effective, but Fang Yi would simply laugh at them before either killing them, selling them, or experimenting on them.
There were a few reasons for this reaction. Firstly, abundance. Foundation Establishment Experts were simply more plentiful than Core Formation Elders, and each expert contained up to 7 pillars where as there would only be one core per elder. Secondly, risk. Experts tended to be far easier to kill in droves versus Elders, they also wouldn't provoke such violent reprisals even if the little Expert was the scion of some powerful Clan but those tended to foster many options and the death of even a couple would not be catastrophic. They might have a powerful backer but then Fang Yi simply avoided those little inconveniences. Thirdly, quality. Quality? What does that mean? Simple. In order to keep the Heart Curses weak enough to be implanted into even a mortal without simply imploding/killing/taking over them. Even the slightly calcified Dao of even a liquid core could overwhelm a batch of Curse Seeds ruining their intended mutability. It'd blinker them from the possibilities of the Myriad Daos and the laws of Heaven and Earth.
Anyway, Xi Tong had been taken to her base near the front lines in Chunwang. Captured and prepped to move deeper into Maze things had been going well, before Fang Yi had been recalled to deal with some issues regarding sea-serpent corpses in the North. She had thought she could entrust the defense of the Burst-Teeth, Ironbone, and Ghostface, Core Formation Elders one and all. YET THEY WERE FOILD! She had to spend her valuable time cleaning up their mess. Putting down the remaining rebellions, organizing examples, and ensuring the relocation of populations to refill Chunwang. Many of her masterpieces had been distributed like so much spoils to the participating clans as "wards" but a couple of her precious Seedbeds had been taken by those Golden Devils! Her only silver lining was that she had found out a Duca scion had gained custody of a couple. It might not be by her hand but at least another traveler on the [Noble] path might put them to use and her Impressions could be regained.
WC: 1964
