> editing before posting
what dark sorcery is this
the sorcery of "It's 3 in the morning and a friend said it's all good, so Imma post it now"
Deep in the heart of the territory of the Golden Devils lies a great forest. In ages past, it may have been green once, but now it's trees lie dry and as stone, transformed by the sand of the desert. Many were but pillars of rock, at this point, but the farther in you came the more…. Lifelike they would seem. Branches would be more whole, leaves would begin to appear, as if they were growing from the stone branches. In nearby villages, it was even whispered that at the heart of the forest lie trees with bark of Gold and Silver, leaves of Jade, and fruit formed from single, pure gemstones! Many a mortal fortune seeker would wander in, seeking that very thing, only to never return.
Those stories don't really matter, to me. All I care about, right now, is peace and quiet, and this forest is isolated enough that no-one's going to come and disturb me. As I leapt from tree to tree, speeding through the forest, my mind drifted inward, back to that single question that had begun to percolate within me from the first moment my body had begun to itch when I drew Qi into it.
Why did Cultivation hurt?
I'd asked around, early on, but had gotten little to no satisfying answers. Usually, it was explained as purification - as the body painfully rejected the impurities that built up naturally within it. Some made references to Heaven's Will, that the pain was heaven attempting to dissuade mortals from setting foot on the path of immortality. And...they all made sense, but they didn't feel
complete. For some reason, I felt these answers had a piece of the truth within, but there was something
missing, something incomplete in these answers, and that more than anything else was
frustrating.
And so, I traveled out here, to this out-of-the-way stone forest, with what stock of Spirit Stones I could scrounge together to allow for my Cultivation to advance, and searched for a decent place to set down. Finally, I found it - a place that looked like it had been carved, the ruined remains of stone trees lying haphazardly around like someone had gone logging and then forgotten to take the trees with them. Coming to a stop, I placed the bag I'd carried all the way out here, setting it on the ground as I took a seat, drawing forth one of the many low-quality Spirit Stones within and beginning to carefully draw out the Qi within.
One after another, I drew out the Qi within the stones, turning over the question that had defined my Cultivation even as I cycled the energy though my meridians. Day became night, became day, became night again, time blurring together as the question burned within my mind, and the Qi burned within my body. And yet… I came no closer to an answer. Hundreds of possible solutions entered my mind, and yet none of them
fit. None of them felt like they were any closer to the truth then I already was. At some point in my cultivation, my Devil Silver Body had activated, metal boiling up from my bones to sheathe my skin, and yet my Cultivation did not advance. Pathetic… truly pathetic. Is this all I can do?
The answer came with the feeling of steel being drawn.
My eyes snapped open, but not to perceive the forest as it now was. Before me, two Cultivators faced down, one wielding a sword of Legion make, and the other wielding a weapon shaped like a simple house key. They clashed, power matching power, and yet to the senses of my Qi, there was only one there. The Cultivator of the Legion felt no different from the empty air, his Qi seeming to be nowhere and yet everywhere like his strikes. Was this… Sword Will? The Legion Cultivator... why was he there, yet not? Where was his
own Qi?
...Wait.
To Cultivate, one draws the energy from Heaven and Earth into their own body, into the pool that was their 'Own Qi'.
My mother...for the longest time, she would break out in hives upon touching an onion. For some reason, her body viewed onions as hostile invaders, to be purged violently - no matter the cost to my mother. Even her Cultivation could only blunt this, not prevent it.
Could that be it? Could it truly be that simple?
A Cultivator draws on the 'Qi of Heaven' and the 'Qi of Earth', a
foreign energy. The body recognizes it is foreign, just like one would recognize pollen as foreign when you inhale it, and seek to purge it. The Qi of Heaven and the Qi of Earth would, thus, wage war within one's own body, against one's 'Own Qi'. This was it… this was the answer I needed!
But… now the problem was fully seen, how to cure it? Well, that was simple, was it not? All I needed to do… was cut. I turned my will inwards, deep within me, seeking my 'Own Qi'. At the end of the day, there was really no difference between my 'Own Qi' and 'External Qi'. Deeper and deeper I went, until I found it - the lake of power that was 'Myself', separated by a barrier of storm from the greater ocean outside.
There was One Sea, One Sky.
In that instant, at that edge of understanding, the Devil Silver Body became but a blade, and I stared at the wall of storm that separated the Qi that was Mine and The Qi that was The World's.
One Destiny.
I faced the wall, from the mere lake that was my own Qi, and I
cut.
I know not how long I spent in that place, but when I came aware, the palace I had been meditating in had been ravaged, like a storm had washed over the area, tearing great stone trees from the ground and scattering those fallen logs like toothpicks around me. I felt…
Great.
I picked up the last Spirit Stone, and drew its power into me. It would still take years from this point, but… I now had set my first foot upon the path I was to follow. Now to walk, until I may someday glimpse Mount Tai.
AN:
So yeah, this omake has been in the works for a while, and actively fought me until I figured out what Diogenes was actually about as a character. This is what happened way back in either Turn 3 or 4, when Diogenes got really lucky and went from 1rst Heavenstage to 9th.
Not sure where to put this request tbh, but I'd really like a
Lifesaving Treasure please.
(