Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

[no.]

Gaius Antonius 71 - Celestial Inheritance​

The Quintia Estate's vault was a jealously guarded secret. Impregnable even to Core Formation intruders, it housed the second greatest collection of ancient, powerful treasures in the entire Golden Devil Clan, the first being the Grand Elder's own aperture.

Counted among its many oddities were several daggers of Celestial Bronze, brought out only for important rituals. They were certainly potent weapons, but such things were so precious that risking their loss simply wasn't worth it, not unless the Clan's numbers ballooned and the Quintia gained several more Elders from whom to extract the miraculous substance.

Each of these daggers was valuable beyond words, so priceless that the very idea their sale was not even worth considering. There was also, among them, an ordinary Gravebronze dagger - a fake.

----

The great thing about living in a desert is that it's very, very easy to hide something, even something very large and flashy. All one has to do is just walk, and walk, and walk, and keep walking some more, until they are so far from anything even remotely worth visiting that no one will ever stumble upon them or their works. This is less 'hiding through skill' and more 'hiding through brute force', but it remains the centerpiece of much of desert warfare because it just works so well.

A few hundred miles away from anything of note, Gaius rode on the back of a cart pulled by a Spirit Horse and began to drive it up to the top of a craggy hill. By his side was a familiar one-way barrel, containing a familiar fish, by his other side was a stone furnace five feet across, and at his hip was something he absolutely wasn't supposed to have.

A few years ago, Gaius had requested the use of one of the Quintia's ritual daggers for the purposes of mourning Jin Muyi, and his request had, with some grumbling, been accepted. What he returned after visiting the catacombs, however, was not the ritual dagger, but a perfectly-forged replica, made to his exacting specifications until it matched the original down to even the tiny imperfections and the wear of time.

This was the kind of crime that would be a heinous betrayal only if done by someone weak. Done by someone strong enough to properly make use of the dagger, it instead became an act which was immoral but not truly horrible. It all came down to whether he could make the family's (unwitting) investment of this dagger pay off down the line.

Hitching the horse near the top of the hill, Gaius fished out a scroll from his pack, and pondered what a despicable person he was becoming. The Gaius of thirty years ago wouldn't have dared to steal something so precious, but that was before recent events. The Gaius of today was tormented by stress and nightmares. The Gaius of today was more powerful than ever, yet also possessed an unhealthy body which grew a little more worn down every year. He had no choice; everything was to be used here and now, and after that he could calm down.

Following the instructions on the scroll, Gaius first plopped down the small stone furnace, a simple contraption which generated fire directly from spirit stones. Inefficient, but when very hot flames were needed right away, it was helpful. Second, he placed a large, ceremonial bronze bowl on the ground next to the furnace. Finally, he opened a bag filled to the brim with a king's ransom in weird, expensive shit.

Platinum Root. Thousand-Year Spice. Rainbow Spider Cores. All sorts of rare, valuable ingredients, used in large quantities among more common regents, were used to inscribe a complex array circle around the furnace and the bowl, one which he copied from the scroll in perfect detail over the course of an hour, just to make sure it all went right.

Finally, every piece of the puzzle was in place, and Gaius wiped his brow as he looked over all of it; he really was going to get away with this. "Wish I didn't have to do this, but I can't afford to be ordinary, you know?" He muttered in the direction of Scylla's tank. "In those caves, I need something that can pierce Core Formation hides easily, and this was the only way to get it. Just being strong isn't enough for what I'm doing."

A weapon of Celestial Bronze was already incredibly potent, but possessed no properties other than extreme sturdiness and qi receptiveness, as well as making for unspeakably sharp blades. To truly make the weapon all his own, one which would grow even stronger should he exceed the strength of the original donor, and which would be a vessel for all arts, not just Weapon Arts, the Celestial Inheritance was necessary. Through this ancient practice, a Golden Devil could synchronize with a piece of Celestial Bronze and bond it to their soul and cultivation base. It was through this method that the greatest of Devil artifacts were born, and today the tradition would be continued through Gaius.

Resolved to see this through to the end, Gaius held the Celestial Bronze up to his forearm, and in one slow, smooth motion, dragged the blade across his skin, letting out a thick stream of blood, and held the wound above the ceremonial bowl. He began to grow dizzy, but did not let up until it was mostly filled - around two pints in total. Next, he plunged his hand into Scylla's tank and pulled her out, holding her body above the bowl. The Sacred Carp, knowing what to expect, remained still, but nonetheless winced as the ancestral artifact effortlessly parted her thick alabaster scales. Gaius drew the blade down Scylla's side, prompting a second, smaller tide of deep crimson which filled the bowl the rest of the way to the top.

Gaius' Companion Beast was not strictly required to be included in the rite, and in fact performing the link with two beings at once made it more difficult. Nonetheless, the sorts of tricks one could perform with bonded Celestial Bronze and the Beast Taming Arts together made it a worthy investment.

Cleaning the dagger off and then clamping it tight in a pair of tongs, Gaius slowly slid it into place above the furnace's roaring flame, then tapped an array on the handle of the tongs. At Gaius' command, the tool floated in a stationary position and held the dagger on its own. Turning away from the rapidly-heating artifact, Gaius began to fuel the Celestial Inheritance.

Pouring a seemingly endless stream of qi into the surrounding arrays, Gaius watched carefully as the array inscription lit up in brilliant red and gold, followed by new circles, each one encompassing the last. The first two concentric circles lit up near-instantly, the third after a few more seconds, and the fourth in just shy of half a minute, with each one going forward taking longer than the last to form. In less than a minute, Gaius found his own reserves growing dangerously low. Drawing on the spirit stones in the bag beside him, Gaius rapidly cycled the energy, which was immediately sucked out of him and into the arrays. Simply using spirit stones directly would not work; the Celestial Inheritance was a borderline Blood Art, and needed to draw the required qi directly from the body of the one being bonded.

More and more stones turned to dust, fueling the massive ritual as both Gaius and Scylla teetered on the edge of being sucked dry. When sixty percent of the bag was used and the glow continued to intensify unabated, Gaius began to grow worried. All of the Low-Grade stones had been used up, and the Mid-Grade stones were diminishing quickly as well. A seventh ring formed, then an eighth. They began to rotate, gradually increasing in speed as the glow of the array became more intense. So much for subtlety.

When a ninth ring appeared, Gaius wondered if perhaps the compatibility was too high. He didn't know how many was the usual amount, but artwork of the Celestial Inheritance being performed generally showed between five and seven rings. A tenth ring appeared, and now the entire hilltop was contained within the circles. Gaius could hardly see a thing through this blinding light, and it almost felt like the earth was shaking, though that might have been his own exhaustion.

The Mid-Grade stones all used up, Gaius drew upon his last resort: a single High-Grade stone, a blazing knot of power so dense that to try and contain all its power would make any Qi Condensation Cultivator simply burst. "Really wanted to use this when I ascended…" Gaius groused, before squeezing the stone between his fingers with all his might. "If I can't take it all in, let's make it a little messier!"

The bright blue gem cracked, and qi burst forth from the rent in a massive torrent, lashing out at random. Gaius sucked in the rich, life-giving energy as it was released into the air, though much of it evaporated before it could be taken in. Finally, a tipping point was reached, and after a minute more, the circle stopped spinning. All ten of them locked into place like some wickedly complex mechanism, and the red and gold glow, previously so bright as to be near-white, faded to a dim crimson and amber.

"Ten circles… that would be a perfect synchronization, wouldn't it?" Gaius panted, slumping to his knees as he turned to the furnace, which still held the dagger burning within. It didn't melt, of course; Celestial Bronze was a half-liquid material already, returning to its prior, 'remembered' shape if it was damaged, melted or anything else. The fire was simply to heat the metal for the next stage of the ritual.

But how could the sync have possibly been perfect? Gaius would have to be a reincarnation or identical twin of the original donor to even have a chance. No, neither of those would be enough; to match perfectly, an identical body or soul alone would probably only get nine rings, wouldn't it? And with Scylla in the mix, the compatibility should have lowered somewhat as well. "Whoever you are, I'm obviously not you…" The Seeker muttered, getting back on his feet and staggering toward the furnace. "So there's no way it can be perfect. What in the world have you done?"

Grasping the tongs once more, Gaius withdrew the dagger, which now glowed with heat. The entire ritual was an unpleasant one, but this part might be the worst. His hand slightly trembling, Gaius reached forward and seized the handle, which immediately caused his skin to sizzle and cook in sickening fashion.

Gritting his teeth through the sharp pain of his searing flesh, Gaius held the yellow-hot dagger up to the sky. "By the grace of the ancients, I inherit your will. Protect and guide me, so that I may live up to your legacy. By my hand, all wickedness shall be cut. By my will, the enemies of the Imperator shall be driven out. Let the sleeping power be inherited now!"

With the incantation complete, Gaius plunged the blade into the bowl of blood, flash-boiling it. A red steam arose from the bowl, swirling and spiraling outward until it encompassed the array. Bronze-colored streams of qi emerged from the array, which quickly deteriorated and faded away. The crimson mist took in the massive amount of energy until it too was the color of bronze, then swirled inward.

Gaius held the dagger up to the sky once more as the blood-mist condensed further and further, seeping into the miraculous metal and spiritually binding it to both Gaius and Scylla. The grip lengthened, changing in shape to suit The Seeker's hand in either normal or reverse grip, and the blade's balance changed slightly, growing two inches longer and a bit thinner at the base. The hilt, previously fashioned to resemble a crashing wave on either side, changed in shape into a pair of feathered wings bound in thorny vines. Finally, the plain red jewel set into the pommel changed into a cats-eye jewel.

All grew silent, and Gaius allowed himself to fall onto his back, laughing. "Now this is a weapon! Fit to kill real monsters!" He held the dagger up to his eyes, watching the brilliant way it caught the rays of the sun. "So, what should I name you?"

——

I banged this one out real quick to get myself to a certain wordcount milestone, but like before I didn't want it to just be filler content. I figured I would use the space to pay off a bit of foreshadowing I laid out back in an earlier collab, and introduce an object which might become plot-critical later on, depending on how things work out.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #72 - The Day of Fate, Part 1: A Rocky Start​

Gaius awoke slowly, to the irritating pinpricks of needle-like teeth gnawing at his wrist. Beneath him, the cold, hard stone was cratered, having recently been smashed by something - by him? Where was he again?

A drop of condensation dripped off a stalactite and landed on the back of Gaius' neck, the coldness bringing forth a little more clarity. That's right, he was in a cave! But why and how had he entered one? And what was chewing on him?

Gaius opened his bleary eyes and glanced down, seeing some kind of small insectoid spirit beast resembling a praying mantis, grasping his arm in its forelimbs and trying to bite into his arteries. Oddly aggressive for such a little thing, wasn't it? Couldn't have weighed more than ten pounds, and yet it was trying to bring down a human. Why would it bother to-

Oh no. Oh, now he remembered. By the Imperator, how long had Gaius been out!? With a grunt of exertion, he got his hands under him, dragging the floor's guardians along with them. A few of the waiting applicants, seeing that Gaius had woken up, snickered and chuckled at his misfortune.

That was right; he had wanted to demonstrate his mastery of subterranean travel to the Grand Elder, by skipping an entire floor. Just one - he needed to scour them all for resources, of course, but he could pass up a single floor to demonstrate his skill before the leader of his entire civilization. Instead, the Devil had reached some sort of threshold thirty feet down and the ground had spat him out, ejecting him with sufficient force to slam him into the ceiling, then the ground.

So quiet that Gaius doubted anyone but him would have caught it, Gaius heard a half-suppressed snort from the last person he wanted making that sound at him. "Mm, too clever, perhaps?"

Oh no. Oooh no no no no. That was the Grand Elder's voice. Gaius couldn't turn around; to do that would be to alert Konstantinos to the fact his mumbling had been caught, and to layer disrespect onto embarrassment would be unforgivable. And so, not looking back, Gaius shakily got up to his knees, hoisted up the insects chewing on his arms, and smashed them into each other.

Getting to his feet was more difficult. That familiar dizziness, almost like an old friend, was definitely a concussion. He dispassionately crushed the stunned beasts underfoot, then turned to see the third, some kind of beetle, ineffectually swinging a bladed horn at his legs. The poor thing couldn't get through his armor, though it had added some ugly dents and nicks. Curiously, with each impact the horn let out a beautiful chime, like a little bell Drawing his sword, Gaius took a moment to regain a semblance of balance before cleanly severing the blade, then impaling the beast. To finish things off, he picked up the horn and stashed it away in a pouch, to tinker with later.

Gaius turned back to the cave's entrance, preparing to bow and apologize for the shameful display, but the Grand Elder wasn't even looking anymore, already giving the next entrant a deep scan. In the center of the chamber, a little circular hole opened up, and three new insects, nearly identical to the ones Gaius had just slain, emerged. The hole then closed, and the floor guardians stepped aside to let Gaius through.

He'd dressed in an atypical amount of armor; lamellar good enough for a Five-Pillar Centurion on active combat duty, forged and sculpted specifically for Gaius' dive. At his belt were several Compression Pouches holding all sorts of useful gear, and strapped to various points on his thighs, hips and back were swords, shields, daggers and spears. He'd groomed himself ever so carefully, wanting to look as good before the Grand Elder as his current unhealthy pallor would allow.

All of it, all of it for nothing. For the rest of his days, when that old man thought of Gaius, he would remember this before anything else. Better to just get moving than to try and salvage his image - he'd probably fuck that up too.

In a daze, he walked to the other side of the cavern and into the tunnel, which led him down a short winding path to the next floor. He had to hunch a little bit to fit underneath the entranceway, but other than that he found it surprisingly accommodating - never too narrow at any point, never a difficult squeeze. The small deposits of False Sun Crystals poking through the rock every few feet or so even assured that Gaius would not have to deal with any uncomfortable darkness. I'm just a few minutes of walking, the prospective King had reached the second chamber.

This chamber was twice as large as the last, dozens of sharp stalactites hung from the ceiling, and from those hung a dozen bats, each with a body the size of a housecat and a six-foot wingspan. Their eyes, filled with a dark, primitive hunger, locked on The Seeker, and as one they detached from the ceiling and took off. They circled Gaius, surrounding him and flashing fanged maws and sharp talons.

"I fucked up in front of the Grand Elder…" Gaius clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, paying very little mind to the screeching monsters. Pitiful little beasts with barely a spark of qi, Carrion Bats thrived on their ability to fully use all of their food. A furnace-like mechanism burned anything they could eat down to ash, ensuring they could survive on almost any kind of biomass.

"Why, why why…" Gaius seethed as several of the beasts swooped in from multiple angles. "Why can't I get anything right!?" With a furious shout, The Seeker became a blur of motion. A dozen strikes were launched in under a second, each precisely targeting a different bat. Each strike pulverized the head or body of a beast, and a dozen corpses hit the ground simultaneously.

Another floor down. Gathering up the bodies, The Seeker took deep breaths as he carefully harvested the tiny cores one by one, and ate them all in a few minutes. Already, Gaius could feel an amazing amount of energy building up within his body.

Carrion Bats were weak, easily-exterminated Spirit Beasts, to the point that they sometimes lost fights with mundane eagles and hawks. Nonetheless, they were allowed to flourish and multiply because their cores, so aligned with the power of Consumption, provided greater cultivation benefits than even a Ninth Heavenstage beast. Of course, mortals sometimes suffered from the Carrion Bats' predations as a result of letting them go free, but this was infrequent enough for such deaths to be deemed acceptable losses, even by the unusually generous Golden Devils.

True to their reputation, the cores stirred up Gaius' cultivation bases something fierce, as if they were Mid-Grade stones. After an hour of cycling, he felt more spiritually full than he ever had before; tangibly closer to the Thirteenth Heavenstage.

Balling up his fist, Gaius gently bonked himself on the forehead a few times in an attempt to regain focus. "Damnit… damnit, pull yourself together, Gaius. The day of fate is here. What's done is done. You can do this."

——

When Gaius entered the third floor, his anger and embarrassment had mostly died down, and thus he did not miss the extremely thin, wire-like spiderwebs cross-crossing throughout the whole cavern. Strung between giant mushrooms, stalactites, stalagmites and strange, cylindrical totems which clashed with the otherwise natural décor, the third challenge was covered in hidden danger.

It wasn't just that the webs were thin, actually - they were shimmering, half-faded things, as if they cling to reality by the barest of margins. Near Gaius' head, a little brown spider crawled up a web and then straight through a wall. Immediately, it emerged from another wall, five feet to the left, crawling on a different web.

Gaius gave a sharp whistle of appreciation. "Sharp wire-webs, spun through folds in space… This place ramps up fast."

Still, at his level he'd be fine with just some courage and focus. Breathing deeply, Gaius set his qi alight, and a comforting weight settled in beneath his skin. A few more breaths, and his armor began to channel the same unyielding solidity. Bringing his hands up in a tight guard in front of his face, the Devil advanced.

The threads, so expertly placed and expertly spun… simply didn't cut through. Gaius walked from one end of the chamber to the other at a leisurely pace and allowed the webs to break across his body. The difference in cultivation, and Gaius' bloodline and body arts on top of that, meant they simply lacked enough power to pierce his skin or armor. All that mattered was protecting his eyes, which was done easily enough by keeping up his guard.

Upon reaching the floor's exit, Gaius spun around, held out a hand and pulled. Every web, and all the spiders within them, were grasped by his telekinesis and compressed into a small area in front of Gaius. Tighter and tighter he spun the ball of webs, until a sphere the size of a man's head floated before him. With a final exertion, he crushed it to half that size, killing every enemy caught within.

"Now, let's see what you were guarding…" Gaius mused, casting his gaze over the small cavern, which was now scoured clean of webs. Only a few threads remained hanging from the ceiling, black as tar and thicker than the others had been. "Bingo." Drawing a knife, Gaius carefully guided it into the air with his telekinesis, cutting down the black threads and letting them fall into his hands, where, like that beetle's horn, he stashed them away to mess around with later.

With everything packed up and reach to continue, Gaius ducked into a tunnel for the third time today. "Three to four; that's a pretty major jump. Wonder what you'll have for me now."

——

And there we go, the first of who knows how many parts. I've written or partially written the adaptations of many of the floors already, but it's a very big block of marble to chip away at. Figured I'd post something now to indicate that I am in fact working on it.

The first half or so of these floors has Gaius stomping everything in his way with only a few hiccups, so hopefully I'll be able to keep things interesting through dialogue, prose and philosophical ramblings.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #73 - The Day of Fate, Part 2: Prophecies and Finish Lines

A thin, elegantly curved eyebrow arched derisively, punctuated a deeply unimpressed face. "That's it?"

A grotesque green and black centipede the side of a human leg lunged at Gaius, who scoffed and launched a snapping front kick, blowing the bug's head off. Several more centipedes, creeping around under rocks and in crevices, cautiously eyed The Seeker. Apparently they thought they were stealthy.

Gaius swept his senses over the opposition thoroughly, as they prepared to strike from countless angles. A few dozen insectoid Spirit Beasts, physically a bit larger and stronger than the ones in the first chamber. Twenty-six in the First Heavenstage, six in the Second. They probably backed up their numbers with a paralytic venom, to take down larger prey with more advanced cultivation with pack hunting tactics. He supposed that, for a fresh-faced Legionnaire, this could be threatening.

Gaius breathed deeply, extruding tiny flowering branches from his skin all over his body. With a sharp exhale, he bathed the chamber in a spherical blast of soul power, instantly killing every living thing more complex than an amoeba.

The chamber hosting the fourth challenge of Gaius' journey was decidedly more colorful than the last three, with vibrant green moss, mushrooms in various sickly shades of brown, yellow and red, and even a few scrawny trees, feasting on the dim light of the False Sun Crystals up above. Several dead centipedes which had been clinging to the ceiling fell to the ground with heavy thuds, and one of the trees fell as its roots gave way, all strength gone from them.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. On one hand, Gaius knew that he should be grateful to have such little difficulty starting out, since each floor would inevitably be more intense than the last. On the other, it felt a bit like he was stealing, getting such great resources with negligible exertion.

Striding to the center of the chamber, Gaius came upon a raised dais with a large chalice in the center. The contents, a dark red liquid that smelled like iron, were easy to guess at. "That's the reward?" Gaius asked with a deeply skeptical look. "Drinking that would be Blood Path, wouldn't it?"

Hesitantly, Gaius brushed his fingers against the cup. It was made of blown green glass, dyed the color of oxidized bronze, just barely transparent enough to see the liquid inside. Sculpted onto the surface was a relief of an ancient hero - he couldn't recall which one - conquering his enemies with a scepter of fire.

"But then, it's set aside specifically to reward us, isn't it?" Gaius mused, picking up the chalice and swirling the contents around. Slowly, he unsheathed his dagger and dipped the tip into the cup, then cast a detection technique. Nothing fancy, just a handy skill he'd picked up from Lipita for discovering shapeshifters. Vibrations travelled down the blade, into the blood, and then back up and into Gaius' hand. The frequency was much lower - if it wasn't the same as the one he'd transmitted, and thus not the same species as him.

"Damnit, if it's not human blood, don't make it look so macabre." The Seeker sighed, raising the glass to his lips. "Bottoms up, and the Devil laughs." With a few eye-watering gulps, Gaius downed the thick, sticky, pungent liquid, swallowing about half before he had to take a break, coughing and retching. Collapsing against the wall, Gaius carefully placed the chalice down beside him and began to cycle.

As expected, it was extremely potent. The Mid-Grade spirit stones Gaius had grown accustomed to paled in comparison to whatever the hell shed this. Given there were seemingly no other ingredients beyond the blood itself, and the blood itself wasn't even that fresh, it had to be a Nascent Soul of some kind. Realizing this, Gaius grinned and forced down another gulp, feeling as his body's qi saturation grew denser and denser. "Nascent blood? Never had a Nascent anything. What a treat…"

Closer, closer, ever closer. Gaius' body felt tighter and tighter as his qi packed in more densely. Cycling grew slower, and a dull ache rang out across his whole body. A sheepskin filled to bursting with wine, he poured in yet more, feeling more alive than ever with each passing moment. Scylla, too, took in more energy, siphoning a portion of Gaius' own gains. Where it went, Gaius still had no idea; her cultivation base remained frozen at the Twelfth still, and the qi she cycled was instead drawn endlessly into her Beast Core, where it was locked away beyond even Gaius' senses.

The blood didn't go down as easily as the Carrion Bat cores, and so Gaius had no choice but to sit there and cycle for hours after hour, Scylla doing the same in her tank. Before the pair knew it, another two days had passed. No need to be hasty - those who went in behind Gaius would never cross paths with him, even if they went past him. These caves were not something so pedestrian as a single linear path. Overlapping, impossible spaces compressed a colossal anthill-like structure, vast enough to dwarf any metropolis, into what seemed like one path. Gaius' Floor 4 was unlike the Floor 4 any other entrant in the current wave would pass through, and the same would go for every other floor he saw.

As Gaius digested the blood, the Cloud Caves provided. As if this place was not willing to drive away an entrant through hunger or thirst, moss grew wherever Gaius sat, and spring-water collected in puddles. Even insects, mice and other tiny animals, freshly killed, would pile up in corners as The Seeker slept. None of it was appetizing, but it all went down just fine, and gave him all the nutrition needed to keep going. This peculiarity was something Gaius knew about going in: he had packed only fifty ration tins, using them not to keep himself alive but to mark his progress. With each completed floor, he ate one tin, and in doing so he counted his conquests.

But soon, with the newly gained qi settled in his body, Gaius knew it was time to continue, and descended to the next floor.

——

If the fourth floor had been a disappointment, then the fifth, as Gaius would soon discover, would wildly blow his expectations away.

Descending into the new chamber, Gaius came upon a long corridor, some ten feet wide and one hundred feet long. Relatively small, perhaps meant for a singular combat encounter. More of those cylindrical totems jutted from the floor in neat rows, and the dark stone was otherwise unadorned, aside from moss and False Sun Crystals all over the walls. Midway through the corridor stood a single obstacle: a tall, thick oak with a knot in the shape of a human face in the center. The droop of the eyes and mouth and the thick lines in the bark around the eyes gave the impression of an old man, and the voice which followed only reinforced that idea.

"The challenger arrives! Step forward, so that I may know the one who stands before the scales of destiny today." The tree said in a booming, gravelly voice, branches shaking with every word.

Gaius eyed this strange Floor Guardian warily, casting his gaze this way and that. It wasn't long before he spotted the shredded corpses of several Deep scattered around the tree's base, which only made him more confused.

Undeterred, the ent continued to announce itself in pretentious fashion. "I am the Well-Wisher, he who dwells in places of power. Come forth, young man, and test your mettle. He who passes my test shall be the Inheritor!"

Gaius tilted his head quizzically, thoroughly unimpressed. "Awfully self-important for the fifth Floor Guardian, aren't ya?"

"Floor Guardian?" the Well-Wisher sneered with disdain. "I obliterated those wretches, who you see around me, for daring to bring forth force of arms against their better. I come to this accursed place of my own accord. There shall soon be a great awakening, and I must find the Inheritor."

Probably bullshit, thought Gaius. Still, things here were off enough that he could not completely dismiss the ent's claims. "So, this 'Inheritor', what gave you the idea they'd be in here?" He asked, balancing an equal amount of skepticism and curiosity so as to not anger the mysterious being.

The ent scowled and let out a booming, wordless scoff, yet this gesture of minor frustration carried enough force to nearly fling Gaius into the wall. Gritting his teeth and digging his feet into the ground, Gaius skidding back nearly ten feet before regaining his balance.

"Fool; did you not listen? I dwell in places of power - physical space means nothing. I have been in the Cloud Caves, and on the peak of Turtlebone Mountain, and the Yuan Secret Realm, and at the base of Kind Zhao's Anvil. I grow upon the head of the Elder Dragon named Seven Cresting Shadows, and my leaves are flung by the eternal storms which lash the coast of Lesser Xing! I do not know who shall claim the prize I hold, or where they dwell, only that the time is near."

Okay, now that was interesting, Gaius thought. Nothing on the fifth floor should have had enough power to force him so far back, and certainly not so easily. It would take at least a Foundation level beast to do so, and for it to be so effortless… the tree was a Five-Pillar at bare minimum, and Gaius' complete inability to even sense its cultivation base suggested it could be much higher.

In conclusion: even if the ent was lying, which it might not be, it was completely inappropriate for it to be the fifth Floor Guardian. Time to brown-nose a little bit, then. Gaius pressed his fists together and bowed deeply, as deep as the barrel on his back would allow, and affixed a look of solemn respect onto his face. "Honorable Well-Wisher, forgive my lack of faith. I was only confused that you would consider me, a Qi Condensation, for your test."

"It has to be Qi Condensation." Well-Wisher clarified as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Only a raw and unformed being can take up the mantle of Inheritor. Now, step forward and take the test."

"Thank you for this opportunity. If you so firmly insist, I will." Said Gaius, walking up to the ent, until a furrow suddenly appeared in the ground in front of his feet, some twenty feet out. He stopped, thoroughly shocked; he hadn't even felt a thing coming. Either that technique, or ability, or whatever it was, had been too fast to even detect, or, more frighteningly, it had been completely hidden from even The Seeker's senses.

"It is simple; touch me. This field cannot be crossed by a Qi Condensation; it grows denser that closer you get, until it grows far beyond what even a Thirteenth Heavenstage's body and soul can breach. Do the impossible - if you cannot even manage that, then you are not the Inheritor."

The instructions delivered, the Well-Wisher breathed in deeply, then began to vibrate. The air around the ancient tree resonated, the very air seeming to solidify and thicken before Gaius. The stone below their feet began to crack bit by bit, and Gaius' teeth started to hurt as they were forced to grind against one another.

Gaius' qi lit up like a bonfire within him as he layered half a dozen body arts atop one another, making himself into a moving fortress. "Just walking? Alright, I can do that…"

Five steps in, and Gaius was starting to eat his words. The endless shaking made his guts feel as if they were being churned like butter, like he was going to melt into goop. Given the length of his stride, thirteen steps in total would be enough to cross this distance. The sixth and seventh steps were completed, and then Gaius' ears began to ring.

The pain was indescribable. Not in the sense of being unimaginably painful - Gaius had been in all manner of various agonies in his years - but in the sense of being a whole new kind of pain. He was literally being shaken apart, as if this damned tree were trying to separate every cell in his body from every other cell. Eight steps, nine steps.

Blood began exiting Gaius' body through every exit it could find. Nose, eyes, ears, all produced a steady drip of red. The Seeker tensed all of his muscles to the limit, struggling to not be thrown off his feet. The vibrations, previously directionless, now radiated out from the Well-Wisher in waves, seeking to push away whatever came neat. The ent's face was mostly impassive, but held the slightest glimmer of interest, now that Gaius had come so far. Gaius made the tenth step.

The ringing and shaking redoubled, and the pain sunk all the way down to his bones. Despite his best efforts, Gaius simply couldn't get any farther. Three steps from the tree was the limit of his body and qi's endurance. He gritted his teeth, activating several more body and soul arts at once, and took another agonizing step.

His hand was only three feet away now just two more steps! Grasping fingers writhed desperately, vainly hoping to brush up against their goal. There had to be a secret, he thought. Some way for a Qi Condensation to reach this damn thing. After all, out of all Qi Condensation, how many could have even reached as close as Gaius had? There was no way it could be a matter of brute force!

Finally, Gaius' body gave in. His feet slipped just a little bit, and he was bodily flung backwards, bouncing and tumbling across the ground from the sheer force of the tree's repulsive field. When he came skidding to a stop, he was almost all the way back at the entrance.

Ow. Now that was a shield, beyond anything Gaius could hope to create, as he was now. Rather than let the demoralizing failure sweep him up, he pondered how anyone was even supposed to beat that test. Three times more strength and four times more qi density; by Gaius' estimation, that was how much stronger he would have had to be to pass.

What a load of horseshit. No one in their right mind would put a test like that before a Qi Condensation. No, he hadn't come up short; it had definitely been a lie all along.

"Urgh, you gotta be shittin' me…" Gaius groaned, lying motionless and staring up at the ceiling above. "Qi Condensation can't break that. You're insane, Well-Wisher."

The ent gave a mighty harrumph, smothering The Seeker in another gust of air. "How crude. You hold respect when you hope to win, and once that hope is dashed you take it away."

"Oh what do I care?" Gaius sighed, sitting up and rubbing at a quickly-forming lump on the back of his head. "You bait me into your prank with stories of a legend, then make me face an impossible test. You're not holding an ancient secret, you're just a Floor Guardian from farther down, here to bully me."

"You do not believe because you do not carry the requisite capacity - for an ordinary one, that was as far as any could hope to get. In any case, you fail." The bearded face concluded scornfully. "It seems you cannot be the Inheritor, but your strength and will are commendable nonetheless. Take this consolation prize and begone!" As if to punctuate the declaration, the tree's face opened its mouth wide, and a bright white light shone from within, bathing Gaius in the glow. Immediately, his thoughts grew sharper, his muscles felt more responsive than they had in years, and his meridians practically sang in joy, so full of energy and health as they now were.

The light faded, and Gaius got back to his feet, practically a new man. He stared at his hands, turning them end over end and marvelling at the suppleness of his skin. He ran his fingers through his hair, sighing with joy at the lush, bouncy feeling it had regained. All the damage from years of negative psychic buildup had washed away, leaving Gaius feeling healthier than ever before.

"You seem in high spirits. That is good." Well-Wisher said, nodding his approval. "Better to take solace in what you have achieved, than to curse your own weakness. Not everyone gets to see me, you know; I only test the most exceptional talents. Now go!" The tree concluded, pointing to the exit with one of its branches.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up old man." Gaius snorted with a dismissive wave of his hand, but nonetheless did as the tree said, muttering as he descended. "…bet you I could kick this Inheritor's ass, fucking judgemental shrub…"

——

The sixth floor was surprisingly small. A grove of trees about a hundred feet across was all that stood between Gaius and the exit, by which some sort of carving marked the ground. Whatever it was, Gaius couldn't make it out through the trees, which he supposed housed his enemy.

Steadying his breathing, The Seeker crept into the little grove, casting his senses out for any sudden noises, strange smells or sources of killing intent. It didn't take long before he was alerted by a violent shaking of boughs.

An ape, green-eyed and white-furred, snarled at Gaius from above, jumping from one tree to another as it slowly circled him. It was nearly six feet of powerfully corded muscle and ferocity, raring to bring the full extent of its might against anyone who stood in its way. Gaius cast out his senses, but found no other spiritually-endowed organisms, moving or otherwise. "Single combat, then?" He asked the ape with a smirk, cracking his knuckles. "One powerful enemy, guarding the prize."

Like a coil being undone, the ape launched itself at Gaius, clawing at him with bloody-minded ferocity. Undeterred, Gaius held his hand up to greet the beast's, and locked their fingers together. Screeching rabidly, the ape swung a fist unerringly toward this impudent human's head - only for its fist to be caught as well.

"The Sixth Heavenstage is the gateway to greatness." Gaius continued, pitching forward and squeezing both hands with all his might. "At the Sixth, you've surpassed what most so-called Immortals will ever achieve. You must be proud!"

As if to shut up this haughty challenger, the ape pushed back, planting its feet and opening its closed fist to lock fingers with Gaius' other hand. It was an even match; the ape's cultivation may have been far below Gaius', but pound-for-pound, humans have the least baseline strength of any Great Ape by far, especially grip strength. For what seemed like an eternity, the two remained locked in that test of strength, muscles tensed at the edge of their limits. "You're not a Spirit Beast either, I can't sense a beast core in you. You attained this power on your own, by eating the weak. How you got from the forest to the desert I couldn't say, but you're definitely strong."

Little by little, the balance shifted. The bronze in Gaius' muscles and bones grew denser, his heart rate climbed to an unnatural speed, and a golden light began to glow from beneath his skin. The ape's knees begin to buckle as its grip faltered and its arms shook. Unwilling to admit defeat, the floor guardian surged forward, mouth opening wide to bite out a chunk of Gaius' neck.

"But here's the thing!" Gaius exclaimed, grip growing even more powerful. The phalanges of the ape's hands broke in half, forcing the ape to its knees. Immediately, roars became whimpers, and it tried to pull away. "Humans have these things called techniques. Even a Ninth Heavenstage could out-muscle you with Body Arts. You should stick to bullying Sixes, but instead you got in my way!"

With that, Gaius let go, and the beast immediately backed away, standing upright and cradling its broken hands. Before it could attempt anything else, Gaius drew his new dagger and flung it. The Celestial Bronze passed through the beast's chest like it was made of butter, then blasted straight through two more trees and embedded into a fourth down to the hilt. The ape collapsed, dead.

A moment of silence passed, as Gaius contemplated his work, then sighed. "...too much?" Within her tank, Scylla burbled, thoroughly unimpressed with her partner, prompting Gaius' eyebrow to twitch. "Look, I'm anxious. I wanted to bully something now, while I don't have to be serious!" With a lazy wave of his hand, Gaius pulled the dagger back and began to clean it. "You're so fussy about everything; it's not like he's gonna tell his friends about it now. More importantly..."

The Seeker walked to the end of the chember, where a blood red array was carved into the ground. Kneeling down, he pressed his palm to it, prompting a larger series of scripts to light up in a complex geometric pattern some fifty feet across. The dead ape began to shrivel, turning into an emaciated husk as its blood and soul was ripped out and siphoned into the array, making it glow brighter and fully activate.

Wait. Was this it? Was this enough to make it, right now? Gaius checked the qi content of the array, then his own condition. Given the current amount of compression, the tipping point was very close indeed. With the huge bounty stored here... "This will do it. This will do it, won't it!?" He laughed. How could he not laugh, having arrived after so many years. Gaius' loud, booming, piercing laughter bounced off the cave's walls over and over, and tears rolled endlessly down his face. "Thirteenth! Thirteenth! The mythical Thirteenth Heavenstage is mine!"

Quickly, so as to not waste a single iota of the energy contained within the array, Gaius set Scylla's barrel down and entered a meditative position. The trance came to him easily, despite the giddy feeling in his belly, thanks to the experience taught by endless repetition and practice.

This would be the last time Gaius ever performed Qi Condensation-style cultivation, and that thought made him feel strangely melancholy. Each Great Realm cycled differently, of course, because the mechanics of their advancement were different. All of them absorbed and compressed qi within their bodies, but toward a different purpose. Thus, any Sect worth its salt had different cycling techniques for the different Great Realms. Gaius would be performing a different method in the future, one which his instincts would have to adapt to. This cycling trance would be his last time with the method he had used since he was a boy. Resolving to savor the experience, The Seeker got to work.

The remaining distance to the Thirteenth Heavenstage came easily. With only a little bit of his body not fully saturated, the qi entering his system rushed easily into that spot, hardly needing any direction at all. For over three days, his body remained motionless, growing maddeningly closer to that beautiful goal.

Just as Gaius began to wonder if he had done something wrong, if he was being held up by a bottleneck unthinkably close to the end, he crossed the threshold. It was more violent, more extreme than any crossing since the First Heavenstage. The Tenth was also comparable, but where that surge of energy had wracked Gaius' body, this wracked his entire being. Muscles spasmed until they nearly tore, individual hairs grew out, then fell out, what felt like every meal he'd ever eaten was vomited up, and sweat poured endlessly from every inch of his skin.

The impurities were not expelled in concentrated form, because the remaining amount was just so trace. For hour after hour, Gaius' body expelled every ounce of liquid, and he greedily drank down the water provided by the cave no matter how bitter it tasted. He quaked, stomach clenching, steam rising from his pores, brain alight with thought and reflex in ways it never had been before.

But slowly, bit by bit, Gaius regained control over his body. When he stood again, splashing his naked body to clean it as well as these caves could allow, he marvelled at just how light he felt. This was the strength of the Thirteenth? Gaius threw some experimental punches, and they came out quicker than any he'd ever thrown before. The way he moved, it was as if he weighed only one hundred pounds!

"I want to break through…" Gaius muttered, looking down at his hands as if he'd never seen them before. At just the mere mention of breakthrough, tiny sparks of lightning crackled around a few of his fingers, warning him of the extreme retribution he could bring down at any moment. "I wanna break through I wanna break through I wanna break through…" The muttering grew faster and more frantic, as the glee of what Gaius had done filled him up. Now screaming in triumph, he raised both fists high above his head as if he were lifting a championship belt. "I can break through at any time I want! I made it! Scylla, Mother, Father, Maria, Zeno, Amaranth, I MADE IIIIIIIT!"

A flash of white became a flash of many colors, and Scylla's evolved form whacked him upside the head with her tail. "Get ahold of yourself or you'll summon the lightning! Don't lose your mind, we have seven more floors!"

Gaius took a deep breath, reaching out to pat Scylla's big, scaly side. "That's right. Seven more. Sorry, I got a little too excited. Just seven more."

----

Damn, this is going slower than I thought it would. That's six floors down... out of forty. This will be quite the undertaking, but that's what I get for wanting to make every floor feel unique and not just skip through a bunch of them. For this one, I wanted the highlight to be "Gaius stumbles upon a stage in someone else's Hero's Journey." For every Chosen One, there's a hundred promising folks who don't make the cut, and I wanted to poke fun at that notion.

The Well-Wisher is bearing a Heavenly Treasure, and has the ability to grow through any sufficiently large patch of soil in the Third Sea, through spatial magic. He can't literally be everywhere at once, though he can monitor quite a few locations at a time. As the old ent says, he's creeping around in 'places of power' searching for a Qi Condensation who can pass his test, since he can sense the Great Era coming. Basically, he's a living MacGuffin that a new Good Seed could use as their Cool Thing if they want, or maybe Occi will use him in someone's fate text. If no one claims his bounty soon, I'll give it to an NPC.

As for the other two floors, nothing too insane happens aside from Gaius finally reaching the Thirteenth Heavenstage, which he's understandably giddy about. Can't wait to play around with that for the short time he's there. Just seven more...

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius & Abel Angelus - Deal With The Devil
​

Abel looks around his office. It was in far worse shape than in his last meeting with Gaius. The fight during the blood rain had really messed the place up and Abel still hadn't repaired all the damage.

Abel winces as the door falls down when Gaius knocks on it.

"Welcome, sorry about the mess, have a seat."

Striding carefully around the damage, Gaius approached the central desk. He raised one foot up high to step right into the guest chair, rather than pull it back and risk a cracked leg falling off entirely.

Neither man spoke for a few moments. Gaius took a few deep breaths, biting the inside of his cheek as he pondered how to approach things. He certainly looked different; more than just rejuvenated, the man carried a physical confidence and almost otherworldly grace which he'd never before demonstrated. Rather than the typical coat and hat, he had come dressed in a drab brown robe with a hood that hid his whole body, having not wanted to be noticed.

"I imagine this meeting carries a… more complicated feeling than I first intended." Gaius eventually said quietly.

"Well you were at least right in that you would come back a king." Abel gestures to the damaged room. "I am just lucky that I am apparently a horrible fighter as a blood hungry bezarker. Just had a slap fight with a junior until it was over."

"I am, at least, glad you came out of it alright. I haven't got a clue how it happened - nobody really knows what happened at all. I…" Gaius sighed, seemingly not up for digging into the things he had seen. "I encountered many things. Things I'll never speak of. Things I want to speak of but can't right now. Things I couldn't describe even if I wanted to. But yes, I did make it."

With that, Gaius pulled back his hood, revealing a strange new feature: a third eye, set into the middle of his forehead and housed in a horizontal socket. "Couldn't tell you where this came from, and it's not even the biggest change my body's gone through."

Abel gets a somewhat creepy gleam in his eye "How deeply have you looked at the changes. Like have you examined exactly how your new eye connects to your brain? Do you have a whole new optic nerve? A whole new section of your brain to decode the input?"

"From what I've been told, an entirely new nerve. My… I think they called it the 'occipital lobe'. That's gotten bigger, to accommodate more information, I suppose." Gaius shrugged. "I can see depth as long as any two of them are open, so I'm trying to train myself to blink one eye at a time in sequence, for an edge in a fight. No success yet though."

"Interesting. So your change came with a whole new section of brain to accommodate it yet it still doesn't include the instincts to fully take advantage of it. Did you know much about brain biology before your change?" Abel is lending forward now.

"Mm, more than most, I suppose?" Gaius leaned his head back a little, trying to remember. "I've certainly learned more recently, but I've always gotten headaches. So I picked up a few words here and there from physicians. I'd say I know a lot more about muscles and bones than I do about brains, though."

Abel's face falls at the word headaches. "I am guessing that you didn't get a full brain scan before the changes so it's possible that this isn't actually new but just a bloodline perk activating. You might have had the extra 'occipital lobe' all along and advancement just let you grow the eye."

Abel points at his head "Do you still get headaches?"

"Now that I think about it, not since I advanced. Well. Not unprompted ones; still hurts plenty when I get hit in the head." Gaius smirked. "You might be onto something. There was this one time I was in a fight, and got a skull fracture, right here." Gaius pointed to where his new eye sat. "It was painful, but there was something else, a feeling I don't know how to describe. They say blind men still feel phantom sensations around their eyes, perhaps it was like that."
"Have you ever been blinded by an injury? Sometimes cultivation allows people to develop based on perceived need." Abel was enjoying this puzzle.

"Blinded? No, not that I recall. Although, my senses have been unusual for a long time." Gaius explained with a nostalgic look on his face. "Dao influence, in a sense. Alteration of my own perception."

Abel smirks "Well I am guessing you would have mentioned it if your new eye allowed you to see though earth."

"I'm afraid not." Gaius chuckled. "Would be great if it could, but so far I'm not sure what's different about it, other than, you know…" he sighed, falling silent again. "I'll quit stalling, if you'd like. I thought my life would be less complicated after I pulled this off, but it's all more insane than ever."

"I have never heard of a cultivator whose life became simpler with advancing cultivation. It's the price for being able to matter in this world"

"Five hundred years."

Gaius said those three words, then stopped, leaning forward and resting a forearm on the desk. "The thirteenth chamber held my mind captive for five hundred years, Abel. I nearly died of despair. I dreamt up countless things to keep myself alive, and some of those dreams never ended." Three eyes affixed Abel with a longing, vulnerable look.

"I'm afraid, friend. Afraid that I'll lose all logos entirely. Occasionally, I mistake a waking dream for the real thing, or the other way around. Sometimes I go days without sleeping, because I'm afraid I'll wake up back in that prison."

Abel frowns. Well that puts a new perspective on things. "I am not a therapist or a psychologist, but are there any distinct things that allow you to tell the difference between dreams and the real world?"

"Generally. The things my mind throws at me are never right, there's always at least one sense the dreams lack, usually more. And they don't show up in my new eye, probably because, like you said, my instincts haven't adapted to it." Gaius looked down and furrowed his brow. "Maybe that's why it appeared, to shepherd me through madness."

"Might I recommend that you ditch that idea of learning to blink your eyes one at a time? It seems like it would be better for your mental health to keep the two sets of vision distinct from each other."

"Mm, that's probably the way to go. Maybe I'll blink the bottom two, then the top one." Gaius scratched his head, trying to find the words to follow up. "But the point, Abel, is that now, more than ever, I desire your partnership."

Gaius pointed right at Abel, and looked at him with eyes of steel. "An advisor, a man with both feet planted firmly on the ground, to anchor me down to the earth. A King's thoughts are wild, deficient in logos, mine more than the others'. I need your partnership, and I am prepared to pay handsomely."

Abel hesitated; he currently had quite a sweet gig in the Bei Spirit mine. But it was clear Gauis did need help. Also pay handsomely. Abel deflected, "I might be able to point you towards some mental cultivation arts that should help. I heavily practice a math based cultivation art although I am helped by Cal" Abel holds up the calculating caterpillar. "Then again a spirit beast might also be helpful." Alway better to help people solve their own problems when possible.

"Scylla does help me, when she realizes it's happening. Still, no matter how well I control myself, I won't ever be the person I was before. I want people who aren't afraid to disagree with me, to tell me when they believe I'm wrong."

"Well I have always been unusually good at that. It would be nice to practice that skill professionally rather than as a hobby" Abel smiles trying to lighten the mood.

Gaius chuckled, fleshing a nervous smile. "You're a fun man to talk to, as usual. Anyway, with regards to my offer…" He then reached into his robe and retrieved a sizeable roll of parchment, some three feet long and wide, covered in various legal jargon, and handed it across the desk to Abel. "I had the bookies whip this up. A contract to my new legion, up for renewal once per year. Before ascension, you would lead the Engineer Corps, at least until an Array-Smith Centurion joined, after which you would be their second in command. After ascension, you would be my right hand in addition to leading the Engineer Corp. You would have the right to veto any order but mine, unless counter-vetoed by a two-thirds majority of Centurions. Call it a special in-between rank."

Abel's eyes fly over the contract with all the skill of a professional bureaucrat. "You seem very confident in my eventual ascension. The terms here are amazingly generous for qi condensation."

"You will." Gaius said, leaning in closer until his mouth hovered just over Abel's ear, and he switched to a clandestine whisper. He even hid his mouth behind his hand, as if worried of eavesdroppers. "This is beyond Top Secret, but… I can personally guarantee your success. Speak of this to no one." With that, he leaned back again, stepping his hands. "I have confidence in you." He smiled.

Abel spots something in the contract: "This legion doesn't actually exist currently."

"That's correct, it doesn't." Gaius nodded. "I wanted to snap you up now in case you ascended in the intervening time. It's a legal grey area, no rules specifically against doing it."

Abel considered how he lost control during the blood rain. He had thought his tattoo array would be sufficient, but it turned out not to be. The 12th heaven stage was supposed to help with resisting such influences. Abel made a split second decision and signed his name to the bottom of the document.

"Now that that is settled. I have loads more questions. You say that the vision of your third eye is district. Can you use it to look through a telescope well, keeping both other eyes open and process the visual stream at the same time?"

"Haven't tried it. I imagine I could, though both images would be a little weird. It's… not exactly like I see in two ways at once. More like one and a half fields of vision?" Gaius squinted, struggling to describe a sensation entirely alien to a human's. "A split tongue can move in two directions at once, but it's still one tongue. Press both halves to one thing and they taste the same thing. Imagine if you pressed them to two different things. You'd taste them both, but… muddled. Am I making sense?"

Abel cups a hand around one eye "Yes, but the reason I ask is that I have made all sorts of vision enhancing eye pieces over the years, but they always have the problem of distracting from normal vision too much to be practical. I Wonder if you might be able to make any use of them."

"I'll gladly festoon myself in whatever you'd like, now that you've signed on." Gaius smiled, patting Abel on the shoulder. "Well, technically my legion doesn't exist yet, but that comes into effect once it does. Right now you legally lead an Engineer Corps of one. Perhaps you can make use of that."

Abel rummages in his cracked desk and brings out a red piece of glass broken down the middle. "This eyepiece allows-" Abel notices the break. "-This eyepiece used to allow the user to see heat."

"Heat? That's quite something." Gaius picked up the lens, holding up to his eye experimentally. "…not sure what I was expecting; you said it was broken. Still, I can see some of the colors outside the human range, but I can't see heat. This would be fun to play around with."

"I expect we will both have lots of fun playing around. By the way, I hear that you are resistant to fire?"

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #74: The Day of Fate, Part 3: Leaving the Ordinary World​

On the seventh floor, Gaius came upon a surprisingly familiar sight. Anyone who travelled to the Simmering Soup Sect's lands would immediately recognize the look and coloration of their specific breed of Mushroom Men. In particular, this species was notable for being not spirit beasts, but a particularly intelligent strain of fungus which sometimes budded off self-aware individuals, who would then cultivate.

And so, it was not unthinkable that, in a roughly circular chamber a hundred feet across - a common type of room which Gaius would later term the 'Arena Configuration', three Mushroom men stood. One was short and squat and festooned in belts loaded with glass vials, another stood at eight feet tall and carried a large wooden club in one brawny hand, and a third was a midpoint in height between the other two, was much thinner and wore a coat lined with many inner pockets.

Three enemies, all, by Gaius' estimate, at the Fifth Heavenstage. Roughly appropriate for the seventh floor, he supposed. And given their differing appearances, he could imagine they all fought in different, complimentary ways too. Fun! Just like the simulations back in the academy.

The academy, eh? Now that was a very, very long time ago. Back when Gaius was one soldier among many, searching for his place in the world. Even after his talent made itself known, he'd still just been an ordinary legionnaire, struggling to survive on the vicious battlefields against the Blood Cannibals.

"Maybe I ought to pay my respects." Gaius mused, cracking his neck and drawing a sword. "I'll play with you three for a while." With that, he leapt into battle.

The big mushroom interposed itself between Gaius and its compatriots before he could reach, blocking his sword with its club and beginning an exchange of strikes, which Gaius soon won in about five moves, ducking under a swing and slashing his enemy across the flank. Before The Seeker could follow up, he spotted a tendril of yellow gas closing in from behind and dashed to the side before it could ensnare him.

As if the deep wound was merely a little cut, the large mushroom-man regained its poise and took a defensive stance, ready to intercept other attacks, while the poisoner waved its hands, calling back its deadly concoction. That made sense; they were mushrooms after all. Simpler organisms are harder to kill than complex ones.

"You're a pretty good shot. Perhaps you do have some intelligence." Gaius called out, before sinking into the ground to avoid another yellow cloud. In a flash, he popped back out behind the humanoid fungus, impaling it through the back. Rather than follow up, he leapt back, and the club of the larger mushroom man crashed into the ground where he had been standing.

A poison artist, a body artist and an array-smith, all in the Fifth Heavenstage. Gaius got the idea; as most Cultivators never exceeded the Fifth, this trio represented a small group of ordinary cultivators. This was the sort of adventuring party one could find in the hundreds in any country, equipped to cover for each other's weaknesses and fight as a team.

In order to beat this trio, an entrant had to prove that they, by themself, were superior to such a group. A one-man squad, an exceptional Cultivator who stood above the masses. Simplicity itself.

The array-smith conjured fists made from stone and launched them at Gaius. In response, he conjured an Aegis large enough to catch and envelop them all, then turned, flinging the barrage at the body artist. With the big lug occupied, Gaius tossed Scylla's tank at the poison artist, who was forming another toxic cloud. The Sacred Carp leapt out of the water and spat out a dense, white fireball, intercepting the blast and setting the chemicals alight.

As the poison artist burned to death in its own concoction, Gaius dug his feet into the ground for greater speed, dodging fire, stone fists, sharp crystals and magical chains. However, before Gaius could close in, the array-smith pulled out one final slip and slammed its palms to the ground, spreading a thick layer of ice and trapping Gaius' feet.

Summoning an Aegis in one hand to block the Smith's incoming attacks - continuous streams of water, moving fast enough to cut through bone - Gaius raised his sword in a reverse grip with his other, blocking several of the melee figher's swings. Redirecting a stream was a lot harder than doing so with a projectile, as not keeping the shield in place left Gaius open to attacks. Thus, he had no choice but to weather the assault, droplets of water spraying all over the place and drenching Gaius as if he were fighting in the rain.

After a few seconds, though, it was enough. The cutting stream, which Gaius bad blocked at a downward angle to hit the ground, shattered much of the nearby ice, permitting Gaius to break his feet out. Leaping upward, he narrowly cleared the Body Artist's horizontal swing, then kicked it in its bulbous mushroom cap head, knocking it to its back. Landing atop the goliath, Gaius drove his sword straight through its brain, ending its life swiftly.

Turning to the one remaining foe, Gaius flung several knives, prompting the Smith to summon walls of stone from the ground to block the projectiles. Before the enemy could bring the walls back down, however, Gaius had already dug underneath, and rose up behind the Mushroom Man, splitting it vertically down the middle.

The last enemy fell to the ground in two pieces, and all went quiet. Stopping for a moment to make sure there wasn't anything left to deal with, Gaius concluded that the floor was indeed cleared, and went to retrieve Scylla's tank.

"You know what? That one was actually pretty tough." True, Gaius had limited his strength and qi output to that of a Ninth Heavenstages, and he hadn't used his new dagger, and he hadn't tried any soul blasts, and he hadn't let Scylla transform and cook them all in one shot… okay, maybe it hadn't been that tough. But still! It had felt nostalgic to pretend he was still in the Ninth Heavenstage, using his skills alone to overcome the odds.

Near the exit, a colorful flower bud opened its petals, revealing Gaius' prize: a human eyeball?

The Seeker approached cautiously, filled with wariness and more than a little disgust. "I don't have to eat this, do I?" Scylla burbled a disgusted affirmation; she wouldn't eat any eyeballs either. No surprise there - Scylla had always refused to eat eyes, brains or anything related to the head of an animal. Even when she ate a smaller fish whole, Scylla spat out the head, for reasons Gaius didn't fully understand.

Gaius kneeled down, creeping around the prize and observing it from all directions. He didn't dare touch it, not yet. "That's not glass, it's real flesh. Maybe it's a rege-"

Gaius' gaze met the eyeball's, and a bright flash blinded him. When The Seeker came to, he was in an unfamiliar place and time.

——

Dead. Dead dead dead. A mountain of corpses filled the Dawn Fortress, burning, boiling, bubbling until the Bronze separated from their flesh and pooled into a great white basin. The Seeker fell, sword broken, body giving way, no longer able to fight.

Before him stood an assailant, unfathomable, shrouded in smoke. All that could be made out was the shriveled countenance of a man nearing the end of his lifespan. Behind it all, a dull roar shook the ground and air, the entropic scream of a dying world.

Thin, cruel fingers wrapped around Gaius' throat, lifting him up above the carnage as if hoisting a banner. The old man, whose face he could not recognize, opened his mouth to speak… and then something came over him, sending his head and neck into a painful-looking spasm.

The old man's face contorted, eyes going glassy, crossed and unfocused, as his mind was taken someplace far, far away. A choked whisper forced its way out of his throat, and words echoed in Gaius' head. "The tree, the tree is rotten! The loser is he who trusts in the foothold and not his own power!"

——

The dream faded as quickly as it had arrived. Bleary eyes peeled themselves open, revealing Gaius' surroundings once more. The eyeball, now petrified into brittle stone, fell out of his hand and broke in two on the ground below. It corroded further, turning to sand, then dust.

Ignoring the urge to make a snide comment, Gaius ducked into the tunnel and continued on his way down. He would have to trust the Cave that this reward would not be completely useless. Still, would it have killed them to just give him some equipment, or something?

——

After choosing to metaphorically travel back into the Ninth Heavenstage, Gaius had freed himself of any lingering desire for weakness. Now, he would grow drunk on strength for a while, indulge himself fully in the power he had attained, through his own endless, bottomless effort.

As if reading Gaius' own thoughts, the Cloud Caves responded with an opportunity to do so. The eighth floor was delightfully straightforward in its challenge. A flat circle of stone the size of a coliseum arena, this chamber had no gimmicks to offer, only a challenge of martial might.

And what a challenge it was; Gaius had fought many groups of monsters thus far, but never an entire army. In fact, that was a bit odd - packs of animals were one thing, but these were no animals, they were soldiers.

At least fifty enemies stood before Gaius, perched upright atop long, coiled, whipcord tails. From below the waist these soldiers were all serpents of various breeds, but above they were mostly human, with a torso, two arms, a head and the like. Some looked more human in the face than others, but on the whole there was a uniformity to their bodies that other demihumans lacked. Moreover, each and every one of them brandished a weapon, and stood poised to attack. No emotion could be glimpsed in their faces, only the cold intelligence of methodical killers.

Well, perhaps not really an army. Still, they filled a lot of space, and fighting them all would make him feel impressive.

"Okay…" Gaius exhaled sharply, drawing a sword in one hand and his Gravebronze dagger in the other. Holding the dagger in his left hand in a reverse grip over his right shoulder, he pointed the sword in his right hand forward, holding his enemies at bay. A few circled behind Gaius, creeping up for a surprise attack, which the sharp-eared Seeker tracked cautiously. "Now we're talking; a nice light workout. Entertain me!"

One serpent-man charged at Gaius from behind, and he turned and beheaded it in one motion. Another leapt over the recently-dead attacker, swinging a saber. Gaius deflected the blade with his dagger, the almighty metal shattering the inferior spirit steel, and cleaved into the serpent's flank with his sword. With fleet steps, Gaius circles around the enemy, sword sliding out of its flesh, and kicked it into two other serpent-men. With a flash of steel, he then impaled two serpents in one motion, and returned to his defensive stance before the enemies could react.

Slow. They were all so unbearably slow. Two, three, four at a time they came, and all were cut down. The serpents could not surrender, could not retreat - whatever magic bound them to the cave compelled them to fight as long as they still had breath. Gaius was nearly twice as fast, and that was before taking into account their sloppy technique, and how fighting in groups limited one's options. Over the course of several minute, Gaius hacked through several dozen of the beasts. Most were Fifth Heavenstage; a few, probably intended to be squad leaders, were in the Sixth. One squad leader and five soldiers from this floor could conquer the previous floor, though likely while taking a casualty or two. Gaius, now that he was cutting loose, was so far beyond them that he couldn't tell the difference between the two types, as they all died in the same fashion.

They were weak enough that Gaius could snuff them all out with one huge soul attack, but there was no need to wear out the Twin Sala Trees here. Better to keep things simple. With one big burst of power, Gaius conjured up an Aegis twenty feet across, blowing the remaining ten or so serpent-men away. With a wave of both hands, he lifted up the fallen weapons which surrounded him - sabers, spears, shields and maces, mostly - and flung them haphazardly at the survivors. Several unlucky monsters were run through, the rest were merely battered and injured, but it made no difference either way; this skirmish was over.

One by one, Gaius sauntered up to the serpent-men and cut them down, until the chamber grew silent. Only Gaius and the chest remained. Kneeling down, The Seeker plucked out the contents, a single arrow made of glass-like wood which shimmered in the dim light. Turning it end over end, he found it nearly impossible to track, as not just his sight, but his spiritual sense seemed to slide over the little treasure. Nice.

"I'm not that great an archer, but I'm sure I can make use of you…"

----

Floor nine. The Ninth Heavenstage was the peak of orthodox Qi Condensation and another big jump. Gaius knew this one would be a real danger. He rolled his neck as he followed the newest tunnel further down into the earth, muscles all warmed up and ready for action.

He burned with the urge to call down his tribulation, to stop stalling and burst forth onto the world stage, but that was the barbaric instinct of an uncivilized man. Sometimes it was good to be barbaric, but to plumb these caves for every bit of resources was an opportunity that Gaius would never see again.

This floor was rather large, enough that Gaius couldn't estimate the shape at a glance. The wet, firm ground went along for at least a mile, in rolling hills and valleys, with a creek running through the chamber halfway across. The Floor Guardians, meanwhile, were hard to miss, with their bright eyes and glowing yellow teeth. They clung to the ceiling here and there in small groups all around the chamber, their Ninth Heavenstage cultivation base clear as day. A few even went beyond that, Alpha Bats which had risen into a crude facsimile of Foundation Building.

Qi-Draining Bats. Far from the primitive Carrion Bats they descended from, this species was extremely dangerous, and known to devastate Spirit Beast ecosystems, as well as consuming arrays and even minor treasures if given the chance. Not just that, but they massacred unprepared Qi Condensation hunters due to their ability to eat certain kinds of techniques outright. Carrion Bats were allowed to live because they made such great advancement materials, but Qi-Draining Bats were ruthlessly exterminated whenever they were found. It spoke volumes of the species' strength that they were not extinct despite being so feared and hated by Cultivators.

"Figures this place would have some of those fucking things…" Gaius muttered with a disgusted expression. "And I doubt their cores are the prize. Let's just bail."

And so, The Seeker simply dove under the bats, sinking into the ground before the first wave of attackers could reach him. With the utmost smoothness, he literally glided past the challenge, facing no resistance. Every once in a while, a tremor would pass over his body as a frustrated bat aimed a blast of raw qi at him, but those crude attacks lacked the penetrative power to reach his depth.

This was a pretty damn big chamber, thought Gaius as he strapped the breathing mask to his face and began to inhale. The uncomfortable sensation of breathing air without oxygen was replaced immediately with the refreshing feeling of ordinary breath. Now that was a luxury no one appreciated until they lost it.

…he felt like shit.

It was insane to feel guilty for avoiding something that wanted to kill him, and yet it ate away at Gaius nonetheless. How many struggles, how much personal growth, had Gaius simply dug his way under throughout his life? Had gaining such a powerful technique at such a young age stunted his potential by handing him easy victories?

Before such thoughts could be resolved, Gaius found himself nearing the edge of the chamber. In a smooth, practiced motion, he emerged from the ground, turning to find the floor's prize waiting for him on a pedestal: shimmering yellow crystal. He reached out for it, only for the object to burst at the slightest brush of his fingertips.

Before Gaius could despair that he had somehow broken the treasure, he watched and felt as the motes of light that had been there prism sunk through Gaius' armor, through his skin and into his body, congregating in his dantian. Their passage soothed him, numbing the little spots of soreness and filling his limbs with vigor. He got the gist; if he took enough punishment, this little bundle of life would burst within his body and restore him. A luxurious comfort, to bait the entrant in deeper.

Far behind Gaius, one hundred bats returned to their posts as if pulled back by strings. Each and every one of the floor guardians turned themselves upside down and clung to the ceiling, evenly spaced out throughout the floor like artful decorations. He wondered how much free will these guardians possessed, if any at all? How complex were the inner workings of this cave network, to coordinate endless legions of organisms so seamlessly? He couldn't even comprehend it.

All the ordinary Heavenstage floors were done with, and all that remained were challenges designed for people like Gaius: the ambitious ones who performed unorthodox cultivation. The easy parts were done with, and only danger remained.

----

This one cuts off in slightly anticlimactic fashion, I'm afraid. Originally it was going to be 7-10, but floor 10 is getting insanely long just by itself, so I split it off into its own chapter so as to not drag on too long.

Part of my goal here was to look back on Gaius' progress, and so I had him fight the seventh floor as if he were his thirty-year-old self on a lark. This also provides a nice contrast for the eighth floor, where we see a Thirteenth Heavenstage cutting loose.

After this what I'm probably gonna do is have one chapter just for floor ten, then one chapter for 11, 12 and the start of 13, then once chapter for the rest of thirteen and Gaius' ascension.

 

[no.]

Link.

This will make good reference material.

 

[no.]

Side Omake - The Supreme Administrators​

Welcome, Aspirant.

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Sacred Beasts: The Supreme Administrators
By Dexsia Trebia
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----

Sacred Beasts are the most powerful lifeforms of the Turtle World. In this case, 'most powerful lifeforms' refers to one simple fact: their power is outsized in every great realm. Even in Nascent and onwards, where fighting across small realms is rare, every member consistently does so. This power stems from their unique biology. Possessing a beast core and a dantian simultaneously, a Sacred Beast has more qi than a Spirit Beast or a Cultivator, and benefits from both potent natural abilities and the capacity to advance their cultivation.

In other words, they retain all the strengths of both spirit beasts and Cultivators, the weaknesses of neither, deeper qi reserves, and in Nascent and above, Heavenly backing. Most of the Sacred Beast species could possibly overthrow humans as the rulers of the Turtle World, if they had the ambition to, but none do. Deliberately designed by Heaven's will as they are, they are nearly all solitary animals, and those who are not are bound to covenants and rules.

The sheer strength of these beasts makes it a necessity to understand how they work, and here I shall summarize for the Aspirant all the Sacred Beasts known to the Clan, woefully incomplete as this knowledge may be. Many others exist outside our understanding, and there are some which we believe to be Sacred Beasts, but lack enough knowledge to conclusively prove. Faced with the gaps in our knowledge, I must regretfully admit just how far we Optimatoi have fallen.

----

The First Sea

First Sea Dragon

The dragons of the First Sea are an unusual edge case when it comes to Sacred Beasts. While they once held the role, they have since been cast down by Heaven for the crime of siding with the Sea Conquering Army. A First Sea Dragon has the beast core and dantian which are associated with the Sacred Beasts, but its dantian is undersized and misshapen, making cultivation more difficult. They can advance in cultivation, but their cycling is very inefficient, so they require massive hoards of treasure to grow stronger.

Unlike other dragons, First Sea dragons are born in Core Formation, a sign that they have mostly been turned back into spirit beasts. They retain the Dragonfire and control of the wind held by the other dragons, but Core Formation dragons cannot fly unburdened like Dragonfish can, and they will never attain the power of lightning no matter how much they ascend. For these reasons, they have evolved wings with which to fly in Core Formation, as well as a stockier, longer-limbed body more suited for the ground.

Unicorn

One of the most unassuming Sacred Beasts, the unicorn isn't much larger than an ordinary horse, weighing three tons at most. Those who think this makes the beast weaker than its fellows are soon silenced. While the unicorn is physically weak for a Sacred Beast(though it is still a Cultivator horse), it has unparalleled casting ability thanks to its horn.

Considered the second most valuable regent in the entire Turtle World, just after a World Turtle egg, the unicorn's horn has the power to resonate with the qi channels beneath the earth and draw power from them. This means that the unicorn has effectively infinite qi reserves, and never tires, so long as its horn remains intact. This makes the species potentially the most powerful beings in the world for their cultivation stage, at least in a head-to-head battle. If one was foolish enough to attack a unicorn, they would be best served by assassination. That said, while they can endlessly draw qi, their maximum output is no higher than any other creature of their stage, so they do have limits in that sense.

Being non-confrontational by nature, many unicorns who have hit a dead end in their cultivation will seclude themselves, gathering energy from the qi flows for decades or centuries to cast a single technique of massive proportions, sometimes equivalent to two great realms above their level. This power then crystallizes into a Miracle, to be granted to one who has earned the unicorn's favor.

Green Lion

In every Sea, the Green Lions are known very well. These Sacred Beasts, blessed with the power to freely transmute matter and qi alike, taught some of their secrets to humans, which led to the creation of alchemical techniques, shaping the state of modern Cultivator pharmacology.

Originally created as an anti-Heaven weapon in the service of Heaven, the Green Lions were designed with a passive field which suppresses Heavenly power, as well as their miraculous transmutation which can reshape the physical world however they desire. The purpose of these two abilities was to suppress rogue bearers of Heavenly Treasures who had turned against Heaven, recovering their gifts so they might be turned over to more worthy bearers. However, by gifting a species with a direct connection to itself the ability to suppress its power, Heaven gave itself more harm than relief.

Perhaps one in one thousand Green Lions turned against Heaven, but each one that did was a nightmare to deal with, and as such, their anti-Heaven field was taken away. The Green Lions now serve similar duties to other Sacred Beasts, preventing calamities and guiding history at the behest of their guiding light.

When not performing these duties, a Green Lion is a chemist par excellence, with an instinctive understanding of the natural sciences. In particular, they can understand the molecular structure of any object by touch. When Heaven decides that a pill or elixir of world-shaking proportions must cross paths with a predestined hero, it is usually a Green Lion that brews it. These beasts take such pride in their scientific endeavors that, supposedly, many of them desire to be forged into a pill, body and soul, when they die.

Outside of their transmutation abilities, Green Lions are not exceptional compared to others at their cultivation level. However, many of them modify their bodies with exotic materials, parts from other creatures or even treasures, in the service of increasing their fighting ability.

The Second Sea

Thunderbird

Another relative of the Phoenix, the Thunderbird of the Second Sea trades the fire for lightning and thunder. Compared to the Phoenix, the Thunderbird's regeneration is not as potent(though it can still regrow an entire wing in under a minute), but its physical and spiritual power is greater.

While other Sacred Beasts exist in the Second Sea, the Thunderbird is considered by many residents to be the most sacred of all, as it personally carries and delivers the judgement of Heaven. And indeed, it's lightning functions somewhat like tribulation
lightning, attacking both the mind and the body and being stronger against those who have drawn Heaven's ire.

In some regions of the Second Sea, it is traditional for the heir to a large and prestigious Sect to be bound to a Qi Condensation Thunderbird the day they first awaken their qi, so as to ensure a future full of prosperity.

Blue Ox

In contrast to the most isolationist personalities of many Sacred beasts, the Blue Ox is extremely confrontational. However, it does not destroy for destruction's sake. The purpose of the Blue Ox is to test things; heroes, nations, even ecosystems.

In nature, destruction is invariably followed by new growth, and the Blue Ox was created for this reason. With its massive size, ability to generate earthquakes, and horns that can pierce through anything, it excels at breaking whatever stands before it, so that something better can take its place. It is said that when a mighty hero aims to change the way things are, this beast will test his might. Similarly, a nation that survives a Blue Ox attack is said to be blessed, for it has shown it deserves to exist.

When not performing these duties, Blue Oxen frequently fight each other purely for the thrill, seeking ever greater strength.

The Third Sea

Dragon

The most well-known Sacred Beast in the Third Sea is the dragon, by a sizeable margin. While all four of the Third Sea's Sacred Beasts demand reverence with their almighty power, the dragon's particular form of majesty is one which has captured the hearts of humans for all of recorded history. Because of this, dragons have come to be seen as the agents of Heaven's will on earth, though individual dragons will generally have their own agendas and desires in addition to whatever missions Heaven doles out to them.

Due to the extremely high potency of the regents which can be made from their bodies, protodragons are sometimes hunted by particularly unsavory Cultivators. It is perhaps for this reason that Sacred Carp eggs are laid in secret, in closed-off spawning pools far from prying eyes, or mixed in amongst the eggs of lesser fish. The imagery of the unassuming carp hatchling being born in a secluded corner of the world, then eventually growing into a mighty dragon, is considered synonymous with facing challenge and achieving greatness.

The known stages of the Dragon are the Sacred Carp at Qi Condensation, then the Rainbow Carp at Foundation Establishment, then the Dragonfish at Core Formation, then the Azure Dragon at Nascent Soul, then the Yellow Dragon at Spirit Severing. At each stage, the dragon gains new special abilities. The Rainbow Carp can weaken the laws of gravity around its body somewhat, enabling it to fly with the ease of a Core Formation Cultivator. Furthermore, it gains deeper qi reserves and the ability to spray Dragonfire. The Dragonfish is entirely unburdened by gravity if it does not wish to be, able to fly as effortlessly as a Nascent Soul Cultivator. It also gains even deeper qi reserves and the ability to summon windstorms by swinging its tail. Finally, the Azure Dragon gains the divine power of lightning, able to summon Heaven's wrath on command to smite foes directly or enhance its other attacks. Part of the reason for the dragon's power is the versatility in its natural abilities - summoned storms can devastate an army, lightning strikes can target individual enemies, and Dragonfire can burn nearly anything.

While they live in schools for safety as Sacred Carp, in subsequent stages Protodragons become increasingly solitary, as they must range out farther and farther distances in search of cultivation resources. As they are considered by some to be the strongest of all the Sacred Beasts, it is said that if dragons were pack animals, they would conquer the world with ease. Or at least, that's how it was before the Third Sea's degradation.

The secret of Dragonfire lies in its delivery system. This is not a conjured flame, but a sticky, extremely flammable liquid sprayed from a gland in the dragon's mouth and lit by a spark of qi. While this means the number of shots is limited by the gland's capacity to produce and retain this fluid, it means this ability can be activated with little to no qi. Furthermore, the flames can instead be intensified with the qi that wasn't used to conjure it, producing a fire twice as hot as an ordinary fire technique, for the same cost. Finally, because the fluid is so sticky, Dragonfire cannot be safely blocked unless the thing being used to block it is completely heat-proof; the fluid will adhere to whatever it hits and burn for hours.

Interestingly, the dragon seems to have been a very successful design, so to speak. Prior to the Sea Conquering Army's invasion, dragons in the First, Third and Eighth Seas were seemingly identical.

Phoenix

The Phoenix is assuredly the second most famous of the Third Sea's Sacred Beasts, after the Dragon. With burning wings, a regal bearing and the ability to endlessly resurrect, the Vermillion Bird has inspired artists, rulers and warriors alike since time immemorial.

The known stages of the Phoenix are the Firebird, which remains relatively unchanged from Qi Condensation to Core Formation aside from growing in size, then the Phoenix at Nascent Soul, then the Sunbird at Spirit Severing. With each stage, the Phoenix grows larger, its fire becomes more unusually powerful for its great realm, and its regeneration grows more potent. A Sunbird regenerates so fast that it is effectively immune to damage, and can only be killed by snuffing out its qi or soul - much easier said than done.

The legendary regenerative abilities of the Phoenix are often referred to as "true resurrection" because the bird will heal the same way whether or not its life is ended. This is because its qi is contained within a sort of "personal field" around its soul, and thus when its body is damaged or destroyed, the qi will automatically expend itself to repair the body, in a manner more efficient than any other healing known.

The phoenix's biology remains a relative unknown, because there is no such thing as a dead Phoenix with an intact body, and even if a Spirit Severing Cultivator were to hold a Phoenix down and vivisect it, the wounds would close too fast to observe anything.

Like the dragon, the Phoenix is an extremely territorial beast, often staking a claim over tens of thousands of acres and attacking anyone who stays too long. In particular, targeting a phoenix's eggs is cited as among the worst mistakes a person could possibly make. A phoenix will, without hesitation, destroy a country to save a single one of its children, unlike the cold-hearted dragons who abandon their eggs.

White Tiger

Amongst all the lifeforms of the Third Sea, there exists no greater warrior than the White Tiger. Abandoning all the special abilities held by other Sacred Beasts, the White Tiger is simply a huge animal with unspeakable physical power and the keen intelligence to utilize that power to its fullest.

Each of a White Tiger's claws and fangs holds the sharpness, toughness and qi receptiveness of a Nascent-grade sword, and so particularly arrogant or ambitious old monsters will sometimes hunt for this beast. Most of the time, it proves fatal to the hunter. In addition, a White Tiger's physical attributes relative to its baseline are nearly three times greater than that of an ordinary Nascent Soul. And said baseline body is, of course, a giant tiger.

While the White Tiger has no special abilities of its own as a species, individual members often do, because any variety of Tiger has the potential to become a White Tiger. Any ordinary Tiger which cultivates to Nascent Soul will become one, but more curiously, this can happen to spirit beasts. It is unknown how this happens, but an old myth says that a spirit Tiger that has risked its life in ten thousand battles grows a Dantian.

Any Tiger can become the White Tiger as a Nascent Soul, and then at Spirit Severing it becomes a Golden Tiger, gaining metallic fur oddly similar to the hair of a Golden Devil with the Blood of Gold, giving it far greater defense.

The reproductive habits of this species are not well documented, as none but the stupidest people alive are willing to approach a mother White Tiger, who will fight to the death to protect her cubs. However, it is known that on the day the cubs are weaned, their parents immediately cast them out to make their own way.

Black Tortoise

The fourth of the Third Sea's Sacred beasts is the least well-known by humans, mainly because these reptiles never meddle in human affairs. Black Tortoises are concerned wholly with the wellbeing of the natural world, and dwell in overgrown places where nature reigns supreme. The havoc wreaked by Soup Chef turned the jungle most of them called home into a desert, causing their population to plummet. The survivors now live among the mountains and the plains, often disguising themselves as mesas or foothills.

The Black Tortoise lacks the natural weapons and mobility of its three peers, but makes up for this in sheer size. It is enormous, with the largest Nascent Soul specimens reaching over three hundred feet in height. Its shell is also arguably the hardest natural material in the world, or at least in the top five, and its scales make the dragon's look like paper by comparison. But the tortoise's greatest asset is none of these: it is its qi reserves. All Sacred Beasts possess qi reserves greater than an ordinary Spirit Beast's, which are themselves greater than the reserves of a Cultivator. A Black Tortoise, however, is special; it can store twice as much qi as a dragon, and three times as much as a White Tiger.

Most curious of all is the source of these reserves: the Black Tortoise's body contains tiny qi channels, like those which run through the earth. This may hint toward the theory that a Black Tortoise which reaches Law Creation becomes a World Turtle egg.

Peaceful by nature, the Black Tortoise will avoid humans when it can, unless they do something to anger it. Some have been known to stay in the same spot for a century, cultivating inside their shell and pondering the universe.

The Fourth Sea

Djinn

Possibly the most unusual of the Sacred Beasts, the Djinn of the Fourth Sea are not dissimilar to humans. Rather than one evolutionary line, the Nascent Soul Greater Djinn is a form which can be attained by one of nine Minor Djinn. Each of these species has nine Lesser Djinn predecessors of its own. Finally, each Lesser Djinn can be born from one of nine Transient Djinn, Qi Condensation spirits given that name because without a physical object to possess, they will dissipate in minutes. They all serve the Spirit Severing-level Celestial Djinn.

Much like humans, the many races of Djinn compete amongst each other to cultivate and earn Heavenly approval. However, unlike human Sects, Djinn Sects do not have political power among anyone but other Djinn, because, being Sacred Beasts, they are forbidden from forming their own kingdoms.

On paper, Djinn are the weakest Sacred Beasts of all. They are not spiritually exceptional, and are physically weaker than humans. However, they have the phenomenal ability to possess any physical object. There are caveats, of course - the farther above their level the host, the greater the odds of losing control and being trapped. Furthermore, living hosts can fight back under some circumstances, and a lack of Dao compatibility can spell disaster for whichever of the two has the weaker will. Still, the Djinn's ability to not just control a host, but bring out its power more effectively than it ever could, could be considered among the most powerful abilities ever.

Many Djinn form Beast Bonds with human Cultivators, possessing and strengthening their treasures. There are countless tales across the Fourth Sea of heroic human and Djinn duos.

The Fifth Sea

Garuda

The Fifth Sea's Sacred Beasts have a great deal of overlap with the Third Sea's possibly due to significant intermingling in the past. The White Tiger of the Fifth Sea is, by all accounts, identical to the one of the Third Sea. Same abilities, same biology, same advancement.

The other "doppelgänger" beast is less exactly alike. The Garuda is similar to the Phoenix, being a giant and powerful bird which controls flame. However, unlike the Phoenix, the Garuda does not regenerate. Instead, it pairs control of the wind with its control of fire, alongside far greater physical power, speed and toughness. Being much like a White Tiger of the sky in terms of sheer martial dominance, the Garuda is known as the King of Birds and is a popular choice of heraldry for Fifth Sea nobility.

It is not known how the Garuda attained its striking green plumage. Given their prideful nature, perhaps they somehow engineered it, so as to be more distinct from their Third Sea cousins.

Vanara

Mysterious even to the people of the Fifth Sea, the monkey-like Vanara live apart from humans, one of that rare type of Sacred Beast which gathers in groups. Nevertheless, they have little in the way of social structure, living ascetic lives in jungles and forests and diligently cultivating, waiting for when their power is needed. It is unclear to what degree the Vanara have free will, given their almost impossibly peaceful societies.

Like the Djinn, the Vanara also do not seize political power, living in kingdoms and villages of their own and communing with Heaven through secret rituals which no human has ever seen. They are unique in this way, having a deep connection with Heaven from birth, rather than deepening it as their cultivation advances. They also do not have stages to their growth, simply being born as mortal Vanara, awakening their qi with their first breath and immediately beginning cultivation.

The primary asset of the Vanara is brute force. The baseline strength and speed of their bodies is unbelievably high for their size, and they must eat an extremely large and nutrient rich diet to maintain themselves. They also receive greater physical enhancement than normal at each Great Realm, making them a devastating enemy to go up against. In addition to their great physical power, many Vanara also possess the ability to shapeshift freely. Due to the power and control over their own bodies they possess, they are often thought of as the world's premier masters of Body Arts, and indeed many Body Arts in the Fifth Sea are designed to emulate the Vanara's movements and abilities.

The Seventh Sea

Baba Yaga

The Seventh Sea's strangest Sacred Beast by far is the Baba Yaga, mainly for how humanlike it seems. The Baba Yaga is an all-female species of witches, resembling warped and withered humans, and they are feared for their peerless magical power. In particular, the Baba Yaga's curses can bring down entire civilizations with ease should their wrath be kindled hot enough. They lack physical power, usually being weaker than a human Cultivator of the same rank, but to get close enough to physically attack a Baba Yaga is easier said than done.

Little is known of what duty these mysterious creatures carry out, though it is thought by some that they bring dreadful punishments to the wicked. However, they seem oddly interested in the promising children of powerful Cultivators. While they don't violently attack humans to steal their children, any child left alone in a Baba Yaga's territory invariably vanishes, never to be seen again.

Another strange thing about these witches is that a member below Nascent Soul has never been sighted, leaving it unclear if there is a "proto-Baba Yaga" or not. A popular theory as to their method of reproduction is that the Baba Yaga is akin to a unique Heaven-aspected cultivation path, rather than a species. The children taken, then, would be new inductees into their tradition, forming a sort of bizarre, decentralized Sect.

----

As you can see, our understanding of how Sacred Beasts work is sparse at best. We don't even know for sure of any of the Sixth, Eighth or Ninth Seas' unique species. I am of the opinion that much could be gained from their study, but opportunities for such study remain few and far between.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #75 - The Day of Fate, Part 4: The Pinnacle​

Impossible. That was the first thought that crossed Gaius' mind as he crossed the threshold, and the narrow tunnel opened up into a massive, broad vista.

The tenth chamber was truly massive. Perhaps ten miles across, it featured a small forest, a hill, a valley, a river and even a miniature castle up on the hill. Waves of soft grass, green as it was in the Yuan realm, swayed gently around The Seeker's feet, and the False Sun Crystals were so numerous against the vast walls and distant ceiling as to look like stars illuminating a night sky. He wasn't even sure where exactly the exit was. He couldn't get a clear view of the opposite wall behind the forest and the hill, and it would be fairly long trek to get there. Even at top speed Earth Gliding, it would take long enough that the air in both his bubble and his air tank would be used up.

"This can't be right…" Gaius mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and raising squinting eyes to the sky. "I'm only a couple miles down, that can't be deep enough to fit a ceiling that high. Is it an illusion?" Such foolishness to even ask; the Caves were beyond his understanding, beyond Old Gold's, beyond, perhaps, anyone besides the Soup Chef.

What was not unclear was the floor's obstacle. As if angered with Gaius for skipping past the previous Floor Guardians, this one had multiplied the last a hundred-fold. Qi-Draining Bats clung to the distant ceiling in the thousands, thousands more dwelled in a thousand small alcoves along the chamber's walls, and yet more emerged from within the forest. Gaius couldn't hope to accurately count the number.

There was only one word to describe them: a horde. A ludicrous, titanic number of enemies, an apocalyptic endeavor to test an overachiever who would cross the realm gap. No, there was another word, actually: a Legion. Clan doctrine dictated that a Legion of Devils must contain no less than one thousand and no more than ten thousand soldiers. This fell within that range, or maybe even exceeded it. Given the sheer size of the arena and the average density of the bats, ten thousand was a reasonable estimate.

Konstantinos Papadopoulos, the only person to take the test on Floor 10, had described an encounter with one thousand enemies, an encounter which had pushed him to the limits and taken two days to complete. This was definitely more than one thousand enemies - had the caves adjusted, made the challenge harder in response to Konstantinos? Or was this army designed specifically to test Gaius, tuned for his capabilities?

"Scylla, rise and shine!" Gaius shouted. Immediately, the Sacred Carp leapt into the air and transformed, becoming a False Rainbow Carp. "The easy shit's all over now!" He grinned, drawing a sword and dagger once more. Golden light infused the Gravebronze as he prepares to cast the Aegis at a moment's notice.

"My blood boils, brother!" Scylla exclaimed joyfully. "Just three more doors! These dregs are nothing, and they will fall like nothing!"

Before the man and beast, a wave of screaming, gnashing death approached. Gaius Antonius of the Golden Devils, son of Hong Xuan Liu Fei, looking every inch like a hero of old, leapt into Scylla's back and took an aggressive stance. "You're damn right! LET'S START THE PARTY!"

With a prodigious force, Scylla flew straight ahead and sprayed a wide cone of Dragonfire, dousing what must have been a hundred of the bats in a single burst. Then she did it again, diving under the screaming, howling horde to spray them a second time. The burning beasts thrashed about, crashing into one another as they tried to snuff out the flames, but Dragonfire is a persistent thing; they only succeeded in spreading it further.

Having evidently learned their lesson about clustering together, the swarm spread out, beginning to surround the duo in a wide net, leaving no place without enemies they could escape to. Scylla just busted through, opening her mouth wide and biting three bats in two, as Gaius' sword took out several more. With more screeching beasts hot on her tail, the Rainbow Carp soared higher and higher, climbing up into the sky at an eye-watering velocity.

A Rainbow Carp's flight is more sophisticated than anything mere wings could provide, and thus Scylla outmaneuvered her pursuers at every turn, giving Gaius the time he needed. Reaching into his pouch, Gaius retrieved the strands of Darksilk, now braided into a thin rope, and unsheathed his dagger. Half a minute of work as Scylla continued dodging and blasting, and he had the rope wound tightly around the dagger, and another five feet left other. That wasn't enough for his purposes, but thankfully Gaius also had ordinary wire, and tied that to the end of the Darksilk.

"If Lipita saw this kinda shoddy work, she'd have a conniption." Gaius chuckled, giving his knife-on-a-string a few experimental spins.

"Jokes, now!?"

"This is a battlefield. High spirits are as important to victory as any weapon."

"Your spirits are too high, go and kill already!"

"Tyrannical as ever." He smirked. With the contraption now spun up to speed, Gaius poured weapon qi down the string and into the dagger, then threw it.

The effect was immediate and potent. The dagger, guided by Gaius' technique and the Darksilk's own nature, sought out one foe after another, making sharp turns and piercing through a dozen bats in a row, then reversing its course and returning to Gaius' hand. The monsters fell to the ground in near-perfect sync, and Gaius spun the weapon up again.

"Not bad, not bad at all!" he laughed, throwing the dagger again and piercing through another ten enemies. "We might just survive!"

"Of course we will! They're fighting for their lives, we're just having fun!" Scylla roared, blasting another dozen bats out of the air with a compact spray of liquid fire.

The primary benefit of a Great Realm is not power.

That might sound like lunacy, but it was true. A difference in raw power can be made up in any number of ways, and so that alone would not account for the sheer dominance a higher great realm provides. That word, 'dominance', is the key.

Because qi is creation itself, every Cultivator is a tiny creator god, and thus one's qi naturally dominates the qi of those in a lesser Great Realm. When a Qi Condensation technique clashes against a Foundation Building technique, the former will lose no matter what.

A False Foundation Building doesn't have that primacy, that dominance. It only has the superficial advantages of a Foundation Building; more power and speed. Gaius was in the Thirteenth Heavenstage: his physical power was at least as great as a False Foundation's, his speed and endurance not far behind. Scylla was temporarily a False Foundation herself. Both of their cultivation was elevating a far more impressive baseline performance than that of these bats.

Furthermore, these were animals, not true Cultivators. They did not possess techniques beyond any abilities granted by their crude natural mutations, nor did they have the intelligence to utilize effective tactics.

All of these factors, added together, turned a suicidal battle into one that could feasibly be won. However, it would not be without heroic effort.

Finally getting the hint that they could not safely approach the duo, the swarm of bats backed away and tried another tactic: bombardment. In scores at a time, they inflated their bellies and fired off wild, blue-white blasts of raw qi. Vomiting up pure qi is certainly an inefficient method of attack compared to shaping a real offensive technique, but in such numbers it became a deadly assault.

Scylla dodged the fire in complex corkscrew patterns, and Gaius dove off her back so as not to be flung off. The last he heard of his companion for the moment was the hydrauling hissing sound of her spraying another blast of Dragonfire. Putting his dagger-on-a-string away, Gaius shielded his body as he collided with a bat in mid-air, seizing it by the wings and holding it below him. Several other bats collided with the falling Gaius' impromptu shield, but in just a few seconds he was free of the swarm.

Hitting the ground, Gaius instantaneously wrapped the Aegis around himself and sunk right through, slowing to a gentle stop over a few seconds. There was no time to waste, of course, given Scylla's time limit, so he resurfaced in the forest, drew a sword and dagger and began fighting on the ground. In moments, he was swarmed by nearby bats, and more distant ones began to close in.

Not having the time to dive back down, Gaius simply fought like hell. He used the trees as cover, hemming his assailants in so that only ten or so at a time could reach him, rather than hundreds at once. It was still a true test of reflexes and endurance, but it was one he could possibly pass. Wherever The Seeker went, he found new bats waiting in the trees to ambush him, and they melded into the endless tide chasing him, making the enemy feel truly endless.

Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. With extreme ferocity and masterful precision, The Seeker cut through any beast that strayed too close, bringing down several hundred bats in a few minutes, until the horde backed off enough, buying him a few free seconds. Putting away the sword and dagger, Gaius instead drew a spear and shield to replace them.

The hoplon was not his implement of choice - the three foot bronze disk simply didn't suit his usual methods, and the Aegis meant he had no need for a physical barrier either way. But for this endeavor, he needed to prepare for every situation, be equipped to fight under ruinous exhaustion and the bare minimum of fighting shape. The Qi-Draining Bats would simply eat the Aegis if it were used as a static barrier rather than an attack, so in this circumstance, metal served The Seeker better.

Leaping into the air, Gaius spun and swung his six pound spear as if it weighed no more than a thin tree branch, cutting down two bats in midair and smashing the haft into several more. A group of several bats clustered up to fire a beam at Gaius, who raised his shield to weather the attack, then threw his spear in retaliation, spearing three more enemies and immediately pulling it back to his hand.

He landed, exited the forest and ran up the hill at full tilt, sparing a moment to look to his left. It was impossible to miss Scylla, streaking through the air and tearing through her assailants several at a time with her teeth, swatting them down with her tail, and dousing them in liquid fire. She was doing fine; better to worry for himself, then. Gaius raised his shield to deflect the talons of a bat, then bashed its head in. He dodged to the side to avoid another blast, then impaled a swooping beast before it could reach him. Little by little, Gaius killed his way through anything put before him.

Finally having some relative space, he sunk into the surface of the hill, diving into the center and then ascending straight up, surfacing right in front of the castle's gates. Not wishing to be surrounded against the wall, Gaius clambered up the gates with relative ease, balancing and leaping off the tiniest little outcroppings, or even just friction against the thick, rough wood. Darting to the left to avoid another swooping attack, Gaius latched onto the top of the gate - only to nearly lose his grip as a qi blast struck him in the back. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he swung himself up onto the castle wall and planted his feet against the towering enemy.

"Four minutes. Scylla turns back in four minutes, and that's when it gets tough…" Blocking several more blasts, Gaius thrust his spear above the lip of his shield, piercing enemy after enemy and sending them plummeting to the ground. Every once in a while, he would whirl around, swinging his spear to intercept an attack from behind, then returning to the Hoplite stance facing a new direction. He mixed the rigid, regimented fighting of the traditional Legionnaire with his own wild, creative improvisation, ripping through the horde at a constant pace. Still, when taking into account the size of the enemy force, it felt achingly slow.

There were more effective ways Gaius could fight this battle. He could use the Twin Sala Trees and fire off soul attacks left and right. He could utilize his Celestial Bronze dagger more, channeling blasts of Sword Qi and swinging the Aegis around as a blunt, blisteringly fast weapon. The problem lay in his own stamina; he was one man, with one set of meridians, one pair of lungs and one musculoskeletal system. Any tactic which would tire him out quickly, or even use more stamina than the minimum amount required, was right out. If he got too tired, he was dead.

And so, The Seeker simply shed rivers of blood in unsophisticated fashion, creeping slowly across the castle wall, killing anything that approached and giving ground a few inches at a time as the stone was turned to rubble by the cacophonous blasts of the bats.

"Two minutes. Make it count, partner." Gaius muttered through gritted teeth as he braced his shield against five bats at once, the small group attempting to rip the hoplon away with their combined strength. Turning to face another group of bats, Gaius instantaneously cast the Aegis overtop of his physical shield, the repulsive force blasting his attackers away from him and into their fellows with bone-breaking force, sending all of them falling to the ground.

"Come on! I'm right here, come get me!"

----

Far to the north, in a major city in Time Shatter territory, stood the Palace of Frozen Memories. Equal parts ornate and austere, the palace's towers thinned into crystalline spires as they went off, before spinning out into the fourth dimension, where they all connected to one another. In these towers, all manner of brilliant scientific minds conducted arcane experiments, to advance the Sect's knowledge just a little bit farther.

This was not a mindless pursuit for knowledge's own sake, as the Noble Knowledge Sect did, but a search for greater understanding of the physical laws. A seemingly-useless equation could, one hundred years down the line lead to a 10% increase in the efficiency of Time Arts. For the sake of mastering this supreme domain and attaining true immortality, the work continued unabated.

Far below the palace, in the basement, and the sub-basement, and the sub-sub-basement and so on, less savory experiments were conducted. These were the secret projects, the ones which had to be kept under wraps, either to preserve morale or to protect it from spies. In this place, all manner of creatures died in agony as new versions of techniques were clinically assessed, and alchemists played with the rarest of regents in hopes of discovering superior elixirs.

It was said that idealists worked in the towers, and cynics worked in the basement, and Shi Jiang was nothing if not a cynic. For years now, his private army of scholars and physicians had painstakingly studied Hong Xuan Fang Tai's body, mind and soul, documenting the changes over time and using all manner of equipment to learn more about the Dao Magic that had tainted him. Their study of Kings had advanced in leaps and bounds, leading to many promising new theorems which warranted further research.

Being a scientist himself, Shi Jiang wished he could have taken part in the research, but he remained, as always, a warrior first. As one of the Attendants, raised and trained to serve The Flowing King, Wei An, he always had been. And while there was no more need for Attendants, his skills had been needed for more important matters. He smiled fondly, remembering how he'd bamboozled that Devil King and his men for so long. That had been a fun excursion, if a stressful one.

The sound of his shoes softly hitting the smooth white tiles echoed off the walls ever so slightly, magnifying his footsteps and making a subtle approach impossible. Swerving around scurrying assistants and servants, Shi Jiang came upon a familiar face.

Sitting cross-legged with a long-barreled pipe held languidly between her index and middle fingers, a stern-faced woman looked Shi Jiang up and down. Dark, sharp eyes paired perfectly with a long, thin nose, giving her a scholarly, dignified look. She was dressed plainly, in well-fitted blue clothes with no loose accessories, save for a silver hairpin which held her hair in a tight bun.

"You seem in good health." The woman said, patting the seat beside her on a simple wooden bench. "You made it just in time for the procedure."

"I told you there was nothing to worry about, Jinhua." He grumbled, taking a seat. "I'm enough to handle any known King now, and he wasn't even in the top three."

"And the data?"

"Safe and sound, obviously!" Shi Jiang huffed and crossed his arms. "I'd lose a hand before I lose that - a hand can grow back. The operation was a success."

Chen Jinhua's eyebrow crept up her face, and her mouth quirked up on one side. "And my present?"

Shi Jiang slipped a hand under his collar and scratched at a half-scarred over cut on his neck. "Got you an old burnt-out trinket; no use as a power source, but deeply contaminated. I'm sure you could do something with it. Left it with Old Knuckleface, go pick it up whenever you want."

Research, investigation and espionage are ultimately one and the same, thought Shi Jiang. Gather data, fill the gaps in your understanding until the picture becomes clear. Even if one undertaking doesn't fully elucidate the truth, it is still a valuable step forward.

Chen Jinhua's cordial smile grew a bit more manic, then, a hint of genuine glee creeping into her clipped voice. "Progress on one front is steady, then. Time to see if we can get anything else out of this one."

"Has he at least calmed down, now that the wait is over?" Shi Jiang asked, the light glinting off his piercings as he shook his head in frustration.

"Indeed he has." She responded, gesturing to a sliding door, behind which the procedure had begun. Chen Jinhua had always been exacting in her standards, this way. Everything had to line up just right, no unwanted variables or unnecessary risks. "His troubles seem to get worse and worse as time goes on, but he never once considered quitting."

"But of course. The sort of man who'd quarrel with a King would have to be stubborn himself." Shi Jiang replied. "Is he ready for the Wall Breaking Miracle yet?"

"Almost. The acupuncture's going slow; he's having trouble adjusting to the regulatory effect."

"One thing after another with this guy. Maybe he could use some encouragement." The scarred warrior concluded with a shrug, getting up and sliding open the door. Shi Jiang stepped across the threshold, revealing Fang Tai, face down on a stone table and gripping the edge as a physician pierced his body over and over. There were over a dozen needles, pierced precisely into critical points all over his lower back, and many more remained on a small side-table, waiting to be used. "Not the most pleasant sensation, I take it?"

"I deserve it…" The Hong Xuan scion mumbled despondently. "This is what I get for being so weak."

"Don't be so glum right before the procedure." Shi Jiang nagged him, pacing around the table. "Your desire to live will help you get through it."

It was like this, day after day. Fang Tai bounced between deep melancholy, shivering dread and spiteful venom. Yet, for all the blackness of his moods, and for as painful and invasive as the many tests on his body had been, he had indeed never once thought of quitting. Despite everything, Fang Tai's survival instincts remained strong.

"It feels strange, looking at it from this close." Fang Tai sighed, looking across the room. Indeed, there it was; a thick, solid steel door which seemed incongruous with the otherwise decently furnished basement. "It's like staring at my own casket."

"It's not a casket, it's a cradle. It's where your life will start again." Shi Jiang's voice grew more gentle, as if he were urging on a hesitant child.

"A new life…" A wistful, nostalgic look overtook the scion's face, a rare sight in recent days.

"Didn't I tell you this would work out in your favor, Fang Tai?" Shi Jiang smirked. "You've earned your reward."

"I'll thank you if it all works." Fang Tai said through gritted teeth as yet another needle was driven into his back. Nineteen now with more to go, the puncture points were beginning to form an image, like a constellation.

"Don't be so pessimistic; you've got a strong, sturdy body. That'll serve you well in there." Said Shi Jiang, jerking his thumb in the direction of the Wall Breakinf Miracle's entrance.

Fang Tai grumbled something under his breath, evidently not in the mood to continue the day's conversation. Several more needles were driven in, the physician on duty working silently and diligently, not off by even a millimeter. Little by little, the shape took form, an abstract series of four crescents surrounding the dantian from behind.

"Are we done yet?" The patient asked, trying not to squirm. "There can't be more of these."

Shi Jiang patted Fang Tai on the shoulder and beckoned him to stand. "Nah, you're done." Turning to the door, he snapped his fingers, prompting the arrays etched into the door to light up. The spirit-steel doors parted slowly, opening up just enough to let Fang Tai in. With fearful steps, he entered, and the physician followed after.

The room was little more than a spirit-steel lined cube with thick leather pads lining the walls and floor; more like a prison than anything else. False Sun Crystal lamps set into the ceiling illuminated the room, casting it into a sterile, clinical mood. Near the ceiling, circular metal holes, each about a foot wide, lined the walls, evenly spaced with five in each. In the center sat an unusual medical contraption, built solely for this purpose. A many-limbed collection of struts and clamps, it resembled a torturer's equipment more than anything else.

"You know how the Wall Breaking Miracle works, but I'll explain the specifics now." Shi Jiang called out from just outside the doorway, raising his voice slightly to be heard. "You'll be held in this harness for your own protection. It'll keep you in a position suitable for cycling. The acupuncture needles in your back form the shape of an array, which will force your lungs and meridians into a cycling pattern." His finger flicked up, pointing toward the metal holes. "Those pumps are the key to all of this. Spirit Stones held in an airtight box are broken, releasing the qi inside, and the qi-filled air is pumped into this room."

The test subject sighed, struggling to retain much hope in the face of what looked like an elaborate deathtrap. Shi Jiang couldn't help but sympathize; the chamber looked like an absolute nightmare. They would need to find ways of making the procedure feel less 'bug pinned to the wall under a lens' - psychological comfort helped in medicine, after all. "In other words, my body is forced to cultivate, and my mind is excluded from the process." Fang Tai's fist clenched, though trembles still wracked his body. "What Gaius did to me won't matter, his influence won't disrupt my cycling."

The Time Shatter warrior nodded, giving his subject a brief look of sympathy. "That's correct. This was all conceived to help our most promising Juniors break through bottlenecks, when nothing else works. It hasn't been approved for mass production yet." The physician, now done restraining Fang Tai, left the room, and the doors began to grind closed. "Cultivation requires determination. You've lost yours, so you'll put your body on the line to get it back."

The doors shut, leaving Fang Tai to face this trial alone. A loud grinding noise resounded above their heads, from what they knew to be one of twenty identical large metal boxes. A hissing sound soon followed, as the arrays inside pressurized the air, forcing the qi within down through a metal pipe and into the main chamber. To Shi Jiang's approval, he couldn't even sense the qi being moved around, so perfect was the insulation.

No one could be sure what would emerge from that chamber in a week's time. It could very well be a corpse, or perhaps it would be a brand new man.

----

The sounds of frenzied violence - ripping flesh, shattering bone, splattering blood, raging, crackling qi - echoed loudly up and down the narrow corridors of the castle. Gaius took a blast on his shield and cursed, feeling a numbness beginning to creep up his left arm. This was a miniature castle, an exact 1:3 replica or so, which meant the hallways were much smaller. There was room for perhaps two fully armed and armored men to stand side by side, giving Gaius far less room to dodge than he would like.

The upside, of course, was that his enemies could not dodge either. After the outer wall had become too wrecked to hold, he had baited the bats into the castle itself, funneling them until they could only attack a few at a time. With every attack, Gaius slew an enemy, constantly moving so as to not be overwhelmed. There was no overarching strategy to be had here, just the careful management of his endurance.

That said, while Gaius' stamina was holding up thus far, the same could not be said for his weapon. The Gravebronze in this spear was rated for Centurion use, true, but such heavy strain over the course of one battle wore on its structural weak points, bending the head and the shaft little by little.

Finally, the moment Gaius knew was coming occurred - the head of his spear broke off entirely, leaving him with a simple rod of bronze. Snarling in frustration, he swung it like the rod it was, bludgeoning two more bats before throwing it and braining a third. Darting down another hallway, he dodged under another blast and plucked his second spear off his back with telekinesis, spinning around to slay the offending bat.

Being surrounded is very dangerous, for the simple reason that the human body can only fight what is in front of it. Techniques to attack one's back exist, of course, but all of these techniques must account for the lack of awareness one has of what's behind them. In other words, they sacrifice power for accuracy.

Gaius stabbed a bat, then pulled his spear back, jabbing the butt directly into the head of another bat behind him. He thrust again, hitting a third bat, then pulled back, hitting a fourth.

For The Seeker, such rules did not apply. In this relatively narrow hallway, with only two directions for foes to come from, his acute senses could handle this challenge. In particular, his pulsing qi radar, developed from eighty years of Earth-Gliding, told him exactly where to hit without having to look. Another hundred fell, then another hundred after that. The corpses piled up, leaving the beasts with less room to maneuver.

Perhaps driven by some implanted directive, or perhaps acting randomly due to their consistent failure to bring Gaius down, one of the bats tilted is head upward, firing a qi bolt into the ceiling. Other bats followed, haphazardly blasting the whole area - mostly in Gaius' general direction. He blocked several, but soon came to the realization that the sheer coverage was too wide to defend against - he needed to move.

More blasts were fired off, and as Gaius kept dodging, he soon realized that the bats weren't even trying that hard to aim. The target of their sheer volume of fire was not him, but the castle itself. Shot after shot rang out, smashing the stones and bringing the ceiling crashing down. Gaius dove into the earth and popped up in an adjacent hallway, only for that one to also be barraged. Tired of being corralled and whittled away, whatever primal intelligence drove the Floor Guardians compelled them to simply lay waste to the whole castle.

"Too many! There's too fucking many!" Gaius growled, leaving the castle behind and heading for the forest again. He drank deeply from his breathing mask, breaths beginning to grow ragged. "But I gotta admit, it's pretty fun!"

----

The Wall Breaking Miracle's chance of success came down to more than physics and biology; the psychological condition of the patient was also crucial. Thus, it was designed to look as appealing as such an unpleasant could possibly be, by hiding many of the components. All Fang Tai had seen of the chamber was its entrance and the interior, as all of the other apparati which enabled it to function were connected to it from one floor up.

Here, in an out-of-the-way area, was an unadorned stone room lined with various regulating devices, like a bunch of iron guts stuffed inside a ribcage. The boxes full of spirit stones were here, grinding mechanisms loudly crunching from within. There were also array-switches which could reduce or increase airflow, lighting, or the height and angle of the harness. There was even a new device, still in its early stages and frustrating energy-inefficient, which automatically produced a spiritual Jade recording every fifteen minutes.

"Gotta say, Jinhua, I don't like this configuration. Feels inhuman." Shi Jiang muttered with his hands on his hips.

"There's nothing inhuman about vertical integration, you fuddy-duddy. It's efficient." Jinhua aughed, sticking out her tongue at him.

He replied with an expression of mild disdain. "Yeah, well I'd rather have something less efficient, all on one floor, where we can keep an eye on everything at once."

"That's what delegation is for."

"You know I don't like to delegate."

"Uugh, just relax for a little while, damn you!" Chen Jinhua groaned, punching her friend on the arm.

Shi Jiang took a seat on one of the benches along the walls. These were meant for technicians to take a quick break, but frankly, he had nothing to do but wait. He held a hand out, and in seconds a ceramic cup of coffee was placed into his hand. He took a sip and smiled - hot, black and bitter, just how he liked it.

Here, one floor up, all of the external equipment that made the Wall Breaking Miracle function could be seen, all perfectly lined up, several technicians flitting from box to box, making sure everything was running properly. So much fuss, to make one man cycle; the Wall Breaking Miracle would never be mass produced. Even if it exceeded expectations, a limited number would be created, for the most valuable of VIP's, because it simply required too many man-hours otherwise.

"Since his condition is particularly severe, we're doing it in stages." Chen Jinhua explained, taking a seat next to Shi Jiang. "One by one, we turn on the boxes and pump the qi air in, while pumping the dead air out. That will give him about three hours to gradually adjust before he's taking in full saturation."

"He's just lucky he was close to the Twelfth Heavenstage already." The Attendant sighed, taking a swig of the bitter liquid. "One week; at this concentration, a week should be enough to get him there."

"It's a shame we couldn't just pump in something denser, rather than put him through such an extended procedure." Chen Jinhua sighed, resting her head on one hand and looking at the Miracle's door in pity. "He might lose his mind, more than he already has."

Shi Jiang threw up his arms in exasperation. "Right? It'd be so much less strenuous if the guy could just work with the procedure, but it simply isn't possible. Too high a concentration will just kill him."

"To be reduced to a state like that by another Qi Condensation…" She rubbed her eyes, which were bruised from several recent sleepless days. Of all the Cultivators working in this facility, she was no doubt the most dedicated of all. "I can scarcely imagine it."

"Even now, he doesn't seem to understand what kind of man he involved himself with. I suppose he couldn't." Shi Jiang mumbled through a mouthful of rice, pausing to swallow as the second box began loudly grinding up its payload. "Gaius Antonius is the kind of man who does the impossible on the regular, the kind who destiny both loves and hates."

"So you're saying Gaius could become a Nascent Soul?" Chen Jinhua mused, tapping her chin.

"Nascent Soul?" Shi Jiang chuckled, eyebrow quirked up in amusement. "You just don't get it; you've never seen a King, after all. There's lots of Nascent Souls, even in a dried-up Sea like this. He's a cut above the rest of humanity."

He sighed, recalling as he did nearly every day the face of his King. The man who he had failed. Shi Jiang's fingers brushed over his scar, remembering the sword stroke which would have beheaded him, if not for Wei An's help. He remembered the otherworldly confidence and focus of that man, and the sense of purpose with which he faced the world.

"He'll yoke history to his wagon if he lives long enough; people like that won't accept anything else."

----

A sword, broken halfway down the blade, plunged into the side of a bat's neck. Before the enemy could get away, Gaius grabbed it by the head and pushed harder, forcing the blade all the way through. Another enemy fell. How many had it been, and how many hours had he been fighting? Gaius greedily sucked in air, looking up to see the remaining bats, still well over a thousand, congregating together for a last-ditch swarm attack.

"I think they've finally all come out…" Gaius said weakly, throwing the ruined sword aside. "None of them are hiding, they know we're on our last legs, and want to take us out now with full force." Rather than despair, what lit up The Seeker's face was an exhilarated grin, the triumphant look of someone who had opened a path to victory. "Perfect."

The time for the trump card came. One last burst of strength, to finish off an enemy that thought themselves victorious. Gaius overturned the pouch, dumping ten Mid-Grade stones into the water. Wasteful to be sure, but Scylla's qi reserves filled back up in seconds. With this much, she could reinforce her body enough to withstand breaking her rule. Glowing from within from the sheer pace of her cycling, Scylla leapt out of her tank again.

For the second time that day, Gaius' companion transformed and took to the sky. This was not like before, where the pair fought to get their bearings and scope their enemy out. Now, with nearly all of them exposed, it was time to kill.

Fire wreathed the Rainbow Carp's body, and she flew at top speed, ramming into as many bats as possible. She took out nearly a hundred on her first pass, then turned around and blasted through a hundred more. Gaius finally used his abilities to the fullest, wreathing his thread in the Aegis and flinging it faster than ever before. In uncanny, impossible patterns it zig-zagged through the air, spearing enemy after enemy. Gaius was all too aware of how low his tank was getting, but he didn't care anymore - the goal was so close.

All of the remaining bats grouped together into a colossal amalgamate, like a primitive formation, and blasted Scylla in unison. The crude attack slammed into the massive fish with unstoppable force, blasting through her technique and sending her flying back, tumbling across the ground toward Gaius. He threw up an Aegis to catch his companion, who quickly regained her bearings.

Gaius, strength flagging, climbed atop Scylla's back as she rose into the air again. "Come on, just one more push."

"Worry about yourself, brother. I could go for years." Scylla chuckled, rising up until she was level with the huge ball of bats. "Is it time for the trump card?"

The chittering, fluttering swarm glowed a blinding blue-white as the attack flared up again, stronger than before, to destroy them both completely. Gaius raised both hands, flowering branches poking through his skin all over, pushing the Twin Sala Trees so their absolute highest sustainable output.

"Sure is! Give me everything, Scylla! One long stream, until it's all dried up!" He cried, and the Rainbow Carp did as he commanded, filling Gaius' body up to the brim with qi, which he poured into a soul attack. The spiritual shockwave hit the swarm before they could fire and threw them into disarray. The combined beam shot off to the side, missing Gaius and Scylla by a few feet, and many individual beams fired off inside the group, causing even more chaos.

Gaius emptied his tank incredibly fast, using up all of the donated qi in just a few seconds, but Scylla kept supplying more, which he poured into the attack. One final burst, to kill one thousand enemies at once. The flawless, unbreakable will of a Thirteenth Heavenstage bored into the souls of the Spirit Beasts, and found them wanting, snuffing them out dozens at a time. A rain of corpses fell from the swarm, which had grown too disorganized to flee or even break up. Bats snapped at one another, driven blind and senseless by the pain, more and more dying with every passing second.

With one last burst of effort, Gaius raised the intensity again, finally overwhelming the horde. Their squirming and thrashing died down, and those which still remained in the air finally fell, lifeless.

Amongst the corpses, two living bodies also fell. With the last of her strength, Scylla turned their freefall into a more controlled descent, dumping Gaius off her back when they reached the ground and rushing back into her tank, just as the transformation ran out. It was over.

All was still and quiet. No more shrieks or chitters pierced the air, and no killing intent could be felt. This bloodsoaked battleground had transformed, all at once, into a place of respite. The grass was soft, softer than anything which grew in the desert or the mountains. Was this what the fields in the Green Scale Plains felt like? Gaius closed his eyes for a very, very long blink, and when they opened he felt a tiny bit less tired and a lot more sore.

How many hours had he lost just now? He sat up, looking around - the bats were back, evenly spaced across the ceiling same as before, but they ignored the victorious entrant completely. "Scylla? Scylla, we survived, right?" Gaius wheezed, fruitlessly trying to wipe some dried blood off his face with an equally crimson-stained hand. "We really did it? Oh, I'm so tired. I'd throw up but I don't have the vigor to spare."

——

At some point, Gaius' armor was removed. He couldn't for the life of him recall how it had happened - perhaps Scylla had undone the clasps for him, or perhaps his body had done it instinctually as he slipped in and out of consciousness. Either way, it now felt a little less exhausting to be alive, but it remained a struggle to stay awake. By this point, no good would come of lying here and sleeping some more; He needed a better place, better conditions. He also needed to pick up his reward; what if he took too long, and wasn't allowed to collect?

After a minute of working up the motivation, Gaius got onto his hands and knees and crawled toward the burbling river. More of a creek, honestly - this chamber was big, but everything was just small enough to give away that it was a simulation. Gaius was reminded of the big, elaborate war games they would play at the academy; those were everyone's favorite days. Lowering his head to the water, he slowly drank, not caring that it was dirty.

His throat parched, Gaius began to splash himself, washing some of the blood off his hands and face. Unsatisfied with the results, he grabbed Scylla's barrel and unceremoniously dumped her into the river, then waded in himself. The cold shock ran up his body in an instant like an electric jolt, prompting some more focus to return. He took a deep breath and toppled backwards, allowing himself to be fully submerged. The river was perhaps five feet deep at this point, though it probably got deeper in other places, and it didn't move too fast either. Even a desert-dweller wasn't in much danger of drowning here.

Gaius' hair floated around his head like flames, and the blood on his clothes and skin drifted away into a red cloud. Something slippery rubbed up against his face, and Gaius turned to see Scylla, pleased at the rare chance to be with Gaius in her own environment. He reached up a hand and stroked her behind the gills, grateful for this blessed, peaceful moment.

Eventually, a Cultivator also has to come up for air, and when Gaius resurfaced, the icy feeling of the air on his wet skin made him shiver. But, more than that, it made him feel alive. This amazing sensation, this enjoyment of simply being alive, is something only felt by young children and victorious warriors.

"This really is amazing." Gaius smiled, tickling his squirming companion on the belly. "It was so hard, staying faithful, staying dedicated. Most people start getting lax in their training after a while, you know." Gaius smiled, clenching his hand, feeling the reliable solidity he had forged.

"They train six a week for fifty, sixty years, and figure they're fine. Their improvement gets slower the better they get, no matter the skill; they think 'What would be the point, continuing the fundamentals like this?' They focus on their arts, the things that make them feel strong." He shook his head in disapproval, remembering the dozens of would-be champions, unorthodox strivers, and would-be Kings he had beaten in his life. "Real power isn't born from half-assing things like that; training the fundamentals improves everything, even by tiny amounts. More importantly, it hones the mind."

That was the key to it, the key to the strength Gaius had demonstrated today, the proof that every single day of self-improvement had been worth it. Doing something that feels bad, every single day. Doing something that doesn't seem to be paying off; something that makes you feel hopeless as you go five years without visible change.

There was a fable, amongst the Golden Devils, of a Spirit Severing Cultivator named Sisyphus. Too afraid to make the final Severing, Sisyphus begged his Law Creation friend, Thanatos, for help. With this aid, Sisyphus remained alive past the limits of his natural lifespan, but the world suffered. As nothing could die, life could not go on; insects and vermin multiplied out of control, wild beasts could not be slain, and the most elder mortals, so old their bodies could no longer function, suffered in half-living agony.

The Earl of Bronze commanded Thanatos to stop this foolishness, and so he did, killing Sisyphus. As punishment for the havoc he had caused, Sisyphus' soul was captured before it could escape, and bound to a construct in a quarry. Reduced to a Foundation Building-level body, the condemned was commanded to pull a cart laden with Spirit Stones and precious minerals to the top of a mountain every day, in hopes he would be released. Instead, each time the foreman would unload his cart and kick it down the mountain, making Sisyphus go back down and fill it up again.

This torment would drive anyone mad, and indeed, Sisyphus lost his sanity for a time. He became a husk, incapable of enlightenment or peace. But then, the fool realized the error of his ways, and something changed.

Sisyphus was happy. Freed of his arrogance, the construct once more realized the beauty of laboring in the name of the Clan. He re-learned the joy of giving oneself to one's nation completely, and this eased his pain. Rather than be freed of the punishment, the condemned found salvation in realizing it was a reward, and after one million years, his soul passed on peacefully.

That was where strength was found, thought Gaius. Like Sisyphus, one must learn to take joy in doldrum, in suffering for a cause. To not power through difficult things, but embrace them like a lover. As a reward for having transcended the despair of diminishing returns, new dimensions of mastery had opened up before Gaius' eyes.

"I'm strong. Still not enough, though." Gaius said, climbing out of the river to get dressed again. "Once I'm out of here, it'll still be every day."

——

The reward was underwhelming in appearance, compared to the trial which came before. Another one of those stone totems, this one was made unique by its red markings, seemingly nonsensical lines which didn't fit any known array-script Gaius had heard of.

"Come on, I'm too tired for games…" Gaius grumbled, running his hands over the totem and looking for a switch. "Just give me the prize, damnit." As if obliging him, a clicking sound rang out within the stone and the mechanism began to move.

With a loud grinding, the totem's sections rotated independently until all the notches lined up, then locked together. The lines on each section began to slowly move on their own, flowing across the stone and linking up with each other, forming a series of characters - a message.

"To you who have reached the pinnacle, I entrust the truth."

From within the stone, a single glass vial emerged. Tiny and delicate, almost ceremonial, it held but a single drop of viscous, red liquid. With trembling, exhausted hands, Gaius cradled the little vial, carrying it into the remains of the castle.

After a few minutes of searching, he found a relatively undisturbed chamber and slumped against the wall. Illuminated by a single beam of dim light streaming through a hole in the ceiling, the Devil rested, pondering the little gift. "Just one drop. Am I supposed to drink this? Or is it meant for something else?"

He pondered for a moment, wondering, mostly in jest, if this was perhaps a single drop of Spirit Severing-level blood. That would probably just kill him on contact, right? No, it was for one who 'reached the pinnacle', so it couldn't be cultivation materials. And yet, he was meant to drink it all the same. Through unknown mechanisms, he was guided without fail to understand the meaning of each prize, even the less intuitive ones, and Gaius assumed this was also the work of the Caves. He would trust this inexplicable hunch, rather than carry the vial with him and risk it breaking.

With a soft squeak, the top of the vial was unscrewed, and an incredibly pungent smell assaulted Gaius' nose. It was as if a lake of blood were contained within this single drop. The vial, half the size of one of his fingers, seemed unspeakably heavy in his hand, as he slowly raised the floor's prize to his lips. "I must Seek the truth. Show me what you're hiding."

The vial was tipped over, the drop of blood touched his tongue, and-

----

It was Tuesday, and Tuesday was noodle day. With practiced ease, you pulled your hair back into a braid, then made sure not a single stray facial hair had been missed by your razor - it would be unthinkable to let hair end up in the food. Your grooming finished, you sat down before a rustic fireplace and lit it with a snap of your fingers. With a wave of the hand, you summoned a black iron pot, then a cask of beef stock.

You hummed to yourself; a tune from your youth, one which had always brought you peace of mind. The motions of cooking food were meaningless - if you wished, you could conjure a mundane noodle soup with but a thought, and it would taste exactly as you envisioned. The act of cooking itself was the point, as always; enlightenment is a monument, built on individual, uncountable bricks.

You had just finished raising the stock to a simmer and adding the noodles when your door, disguised as a cave wall, creaked noisily open.

"So that's where it ended up." Said a man's voice, in a language you knew to originate from the Fifth Sea. Ah, so that was the source of the recent noise. You hadn't realized it was that time of the century again.

"You made quite a racket these last few months, stranger." You said, carefully observing the noodles as they slowly grew firmer. "Did you find success?"

"I did, though it was difficult." The stranger said, composing his voice into a diplomatic, aristocratic tone. "I was searching for a weapon that was lost in the struggle; I see it somehow found its way in here."

A Spirit Severing aura washed over your senses. Not a weak one, either; this man had made two Severings already. Whatever it was he'd cast off, you couldn't bring yourself to care, but you hoped it wasn't anything which would inhibit sensory pleasures. It had been a while since you sat someone down for a meal.

"Would you like to eat with me, stranger? As you can see, I'm cooking some nice soup here." You offered with genuine geniality. Anyone who wanted to eat with you was free to do so, of course. Enemy or ally, stranger or companion, saint or sinner, you would serve them all to the best of your ability. "Surely your soul alone is sufficient to serve as proctor for the rest of the year."

"I'm afraid I'm not taking such a passive role, good sir, so I must remain vigilant." The traveler said, smooth dulcet tones pouring from his mouth like cool spring water. A charm technique? Or perhaps he just had a natural, royal charisma.

"I was under the impression that these days, the Fifth Sea only sends their Spirit Severing practitioners out here as proctors..." You finally allowed your eyes to pass over the foreigner. A brawny, masculine specimen, long of beard and limb, he bore splotches of blue all over his skin, and was clearly wounded from a battle. His gold and silver armor was broken, covered in cracks and dents. Blood streamed from a destroyed left eye, and two fingers had been severed on his right hand. "But you're right - looking at this state you don't seem like a proctor. Indulge my curiosity, would you?"

The foreigner tilted his head, likely surprised that a non-Devil would know so much about the Centennial Trials. "That's correct; I'm not a proctor, my presence here is a special case."

"Really? In that case, what brought you this far?"

"Hunting."

"And what, perchance, was your quarry, hunter?"

"The Devils were hiding a Spirit Severing ancestor unbeknownst to us. That old man hid within this mountain for millenia, secretly running interference for his fellow monsters." The hunter explained, letting his gaze drift to the far wall, where a spear of dark grey stone rested. "He even had an ancestral treasure with him."

You didn't respond to the display, merely continuing to stir the pot before you. "So that old sponge was finally wrung out? Shame; I liked him."

"Are you going to interfere, good sir?" The hunter asked with a dangerous edge. Not quite hostile, still probing to try and gauge what sat before him. If only he knew. "The rules are clear: outsiders are not to interfere in the hunt. We have nothing to gain from your life, I must ask you to move along."

"My, my, such a busy man, you are!" You remarked, putting down your utensils to let the pot simmer. With rigid fastidiousness, you produced a washcloth, soaked in hot water and fresh soap, from nowhere, and began to clean your weathered hands. "You've got another three months, don't you? And you've got no more quarry you can legally kill! You can spare a day at half-strength - let your soul scout ahead, and sit your body down for a nice meal."

The swarthy man shook his head solemnly, heedless of the blood seeping from his ruined eyesocket, which drip-drip-dripped to the floor in a steady rhythm. "I cannot accept your offer, good sir. I am duty-bound to bring home as much karma as I can. There may be no more Spirit Severing Devils to personally enrich myself, but I can indirectly assist my Dynasty's Juniors. Furthermore, an ancient family treasure has been destroyed, and must be replaced. I ask you again, good sir; please move along."

"Replaced?" You muttered with a tilt of the head, pausing your hand-washing. "With that chopstick back there?" You jerked your thumb behind you, at the stone spear leaning against the wall. "I don't think you'd win much glory with that. It's made for eating, not fighting."

"I grow tired of your games, hermit!" The hunter shouted. "Just a few hours ago, a Bronze Devil brought that spear to bear against me! Even a lunatic like you must recognize its power at a glance - it is the equal of my very own Nine-Petal Vajra, which now lies shattered!"

Lunatic? Now that was just uncalled for, an unenlightened man like him questioning your sanity. You got to your feet, continuing to clean your hands until every speck of grime was gone, then banished the washcloth with a thought. Picking up the spear, you held it horizontally, running your fingers along the haft. Indeed, this chopstick was well-made, and artfully decorated. The swirling of pearlescent Dao Emanations, winding up and down the artifact like snakes, served only to highlight the artistry of its subtle engravings. But in the end…

"It really is just a chopstick." You insisted, twirling it between your fingers. "Whatever it was before, it's a chopstick now - I've eaten with it, after all. It, alongside my other stick, makes a pair." With a snap of your fingers, you summoned the other stick in question, a long, unadorned rod of smooth off-white birchwood, sharpened into a point on one end.

"I'm through with your games!" Yelled the hunter, drawing a round-headed mace and raising it to the sky. Bolt after bolt of lightning was summoned into the weapon, until the entire mace was alight with crackling blue. "I've won those spoils; hand over the spear and stand aside!"

You sighed, aghast at the foolish greed of the Main Path. Always lusting for resources, for magical resources. Greater strength only brought a greater lust for the bounties of earth and sky. "You people are all so unenlightened. It can't go on like this…" You muttered, shaking your head.

You drew the chopsticks back and-

A spider sucks the liquefied remains of its prey out of a web prison. Wolves rip apart a bison, and vultures swoop down to take what they leave behind. A whirlpool swallows up a ship, plunging her and her crew down to the ocean depths below. A star is dragged screaming into a black hole, unravelling into streamers of light and flame and spiralling into the event horizon.

There was no Fifth Sea hunter before you anymore. There never had been. What a shame, you thought, leaning your chopsticks against the wall and once more beginning to clean your hands. "All they do is bicker about riches. So boring."

You returned to your pot once more, lowering the heat by just a few degrees to maintain the perfect simmer. With a wave of your hand, you added some diced green onion on a whim. You liked to add the vegetables a step or two earlier than most cooks, to get them nice and soft. Noodle soups should be a collection of softness, broken up only for a specific purpose.

It wouldn't be much longer now. Everything was in its proper place, or soon to be. You'd have to move to a new hideout soon, as no doubt the Golden Devils would investigate the disturbance in a few months, but that was no big loss; you could do with a change of scenery anyway.

----

-an animal urge in the back of Gaius' brain bid his mouth and tongue to move of their own volition, spitting out the blood. The vast majority of the tainted, incredibly potent liquid spilled out onto the stone, which re-absorbed it like a sponge. Trace amounts, less than one-tenth, stuck fast to Gaius' tongue, and seeped into him.

Awareness returned, in fits and starts, to the Devil. He hugged his knees, shivering, as a bone-deep ache sunk into his body. Just that sliver, that single fragment of time, threatened to tear him apart. It was as if he'd swallowed broken glass, and could do nothing but endure the pain, hoping his body and soul could break down the sliver of Will before it killed him.

"Soup Chef. That was the Soup Chef, wasn't it?" He asked fruitlessly, rubbing his eyes to try and relieve a pounding headache. His other hand found the wall behind him, and he got back to his feet. "Chopsticks… can't go on… unenlightened people… Grand Elder Komemnos was alive..." Promptly doubling over, Gaius found that he did, in fact, have enough vigor left to throw up, emptying what little was in his stomach onto the floor beneath him as well as his own shoes.

Well, that was as good a sign as any for some sleep. Dragging himself down a hallway in search of a less smelly but still intact room, Gaius loosened the straps of his armor one by one. Eventually, he began outright discarding it piece by piece, stretching his aching joints after each loud clang. What was that vision even supposed to tell him? Meaningless trivia about a man long dead? Crucial information to his people, but ten millenia out of date?

Reaching into a Compression Pouch, Gaius retrieved a bedroll and flung it haphazardly onto the ground. Screw finding a room, he was alone anyway. He settled into the bedroll one limb at a time, not bothering to remove his underclothes, and laid his head down for some blissful rest.

"What kind of fucking reward is that?" Gaius muttered, rapidly losing consciousness. "Cheapskate cave, just give me a sword…"

----

The tenth floor, and the accompanying vision, ended up being its own chapter because it was so involved. I wanted to go all out with that big battle, show what an all-out brawl at the absolute pinnacle of Qi Condensation can look like. At the same time, I didn't want it to get monotonous, so I placed an emphasis on the attrition aspect of the fight, with Gaius and Scylla employing a multitude of strategies to cut their foes down while preserving their stamina and not being overwhelmed by the whole swarm at once.

As for the Soup Chef vision, I have to thank our QM for letting me put my own spin on such an important character. Since he's a cook, I decided to give him somewhat of a neat freak personality, as well as a disdain for those who constantly squabble over status and resources. Of course, that's easy for him to say, what with not needing resources to advance the way the orthodox path does.

For Soup Chef's fighting style, I came up with the idea of him using two spears at once, which he refers to as Chopsticks. He can wrap his Dao Emanations around any sufficiently long object and use it as a Chopstick, essentially overriding whatever was there before and turning it into the equivalent of a Law Creation treasure with no special features. The Stone Spear was an ancient, incredibly valuable Golden Devil artifact, until Soup Chef found the fallen weapon. After that, it became just another Chopstick, no stronger or weaker than if he'd used a drying pole.

Next chapter is 11, 12 and the start of 13. Then, finally, for the chapter after that I can do Gaius' tribulation, and that's where I'm gonna go all-out.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius & The Builder - Just Sign on the Dotted Line​

"So… how was it?" Gaius asked with a smug grin, pulling a cigarette out of his coat and to his hand with a flick of his finger.

"Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted."

"Seven out of ten." Said the woman beside him. Well-muscled and missing one breast, not to mention her stoic demeanor, she was, clear as day, a transfer from the 465th Legion, the Defiant Amazons. She was also, notably, not Gaius' wife.

"A seven!?" Gaius balked, cigarette hanging loosely from his lip. "You've gotta be kidding me, Penelope; I don't get C's in anything!"

Without skipping a beat, the Centurion got out of bed and began getting dressed, voice impassive. "It's graded on a curve, sir; five would be the median of everyone I've been with. You got a B."

"Still not happy. My own loyal subordinate gives me a B! Assassinate me, why don't you!?" Gaius said in sarcastic despair, clutching his chest.

"You should be happy, sir. Anything higher than seven and there's a risk someone will catch feelings. Wouldn't want that." The night's paramour, full name Penelope Anotouli, chided with a little smirk.

The Seeker sneered and crossed his arms, blowing a plume of smoke out his nose. "How about you give me some good news, eh? How's the recruitment going?"

"Slow."

"Don't be so frigid!" Gaius snapped. "Gimme some more words; what's the holdup now?"

Penelope was, indeed, a frigid bitch, and would describe herself as such with pride. Antisocial as the Centurion could be, she was a master of logistics, and a powerful warrior besides, making her a fantastic pick for the first of his Centurions. A number which, two years later, stood at a measly six.

"As usual, the problem comes down to manpower. A Legion needs to handle its own materiel, arms, organization, paperwork…" The Amazon rattled terms off without missing a beat, disentangling Gaius' pants from hers as she spoke. "The autonomy of each Legion is how we make war over such great distances, but it makes building a new one a real pain."

"Need to make the stuff to supply the recruits, need recruits to make the stuff…" Gaius grumbled. "If we could just buy what we need in bulk, we could grow faster, but I don't have the points. To get the points to afford that, I'd need to do Legate stuff, but to do Legate stuff, I need a Legion!"

"Don't whine so much, this is just how it goes." Penelope half-heartedly glared at her Legate. "The Legion's growth will accelerate over time, until it reaches half strength. From there, it will be slow going again, as we will no longer be supplied an allowance."

Gaius fell back onto his back, staring up at the fine, sturdy aquamarine cloth of his spacious tent. There had to be some way to make this go faster, something other than years of doldrum. Callista had been granted a Legion straightaway, but that had been a propaganda move, for what the Clan suspected would be their sole King. That ceremonial force would not be afforded to the latecomers. "Damnit, if we could just outsource the labor, we'd grow so much faster…"

"Well, if you're looking for laborers, there is one possibility." Penelope trailed off, face falling into a slight grimace. "Are you familiar with The Brotherhood, sir?"

"Brotherhood, Brotherhood…" Gaius muttered, sitting up and pulling the cigarette, which had been floating around above his head, to his lips. "Now that I think about it, I once met an odd fella. Old man who called himself The Builder, with a bunch of no-talents following him around like he hung the stars in the sky. Those folks went by that name."

"That would be him, correct." Penelope confirmed with a curt nod. She swallowed in hesitation, but whatever the source of those feelings, she did not express them. "They've been growing quite a bit in numbers lately. They're mortals, in a sense. Mortals who couldn't have awakened their qi normally, but had it awakened by some treasure. They don't use spirit stones, because they see themselves as 'not real Devils'."

"No spirit stones!?" Gaius exclaimed, bug-eyed, and put his cigarette out on his arm. "In the desert? That's a death sentence. You'd never get past the Second… no, it would be the Fourth Heavenstage now. That insane!"

"Utterly, yes." Penelope said, now openly scowling as she fastened her tunic. "They consider themselves to be 'off the books', so to speak. They wouldn't be Cultivators at all without that treasure that awakened them, so by their logic, that makes them the lowest beings of the Cultivation World. They'd rather Clansmen with more potential use them."

"Okay, so they stay at the lower Heavenstages to do work for other Clansmen… what's in it for them? What are they trying to do?" Gaius furrowed his brow, wondering if he was stupid, or had missed some detail.

"The work is what's in it, sir."

"I don't understand."

"That's because you are also insane, sir. Trust my sanity."

"You ought to be more respectful, Penelope…" Gaius whined, holding his head in his hands. Thinking in circles like this would just give him a headache, so he gave up on trying to comprehend those closed-off avenues.

"Please focus, sir!" the Centurion exclaimed, though her tone did not change, only the volume. "Their mission statement, as an organization, is to assist the Clan in its endeavors. They believe the Golden Devils are the best hope for prosperity for mortal-kind, and so the Clan must spread. Therefore, they do the lowest, most unglamorous work."

"And how do a bunch of dead-enders help with Legion-building?"

Penelope pinched the bridge of her nose, evidently annoyed at having to spell the answer out. "Because, sir, if they're unable to get past the Fourth Heavenstage, that means they'll be Aspirants forever."

"…so they'll be chore boys forever!" Gaius exclaimed with a snap of his fingers. "Let's buy them in bulk! We can get this Legion running in half the expected time!"

"I'll get you more than chore boys, sir." Penelope declared sternly, putting the finishing touches on her outfit and ready to leave, a mere five minutes after they'd finished. "If we're to associate with that cult, we'd best make the most of it. I'll cook us up a contract that'd make a Forest Spirit weep."

—-


Peng Kingdom part of the Scorpion road had never looked so weird. Pristine routes where one could literally eat the food that falls on it. With numerous arrays that had the level of dedication one would expect in a Devils' Fortress.

But other roads were literally on fire, from all active volcanoes.

Which made the massive number of elderly Golden Devils, in a camp, all old soldiers that were emanating an aura of pure happiness all that much stranger.

If the observer knew the Brotherhood the first thing to come to mind was how slowing they were working on that day. Still doing labor that would kill a mortal. But far too slow for their 'usual' level of dedication.

One of them looked at the crimson sky from all the smoke present, the purple lightning coming from the closest volcano and said "What a lovely day".

The other elders present nod to that. "Aye, if we knew that a pissed heaven would give us so much, we would start the end of times early" all present laugh at that. Meanwhile a bird was looking at them with extreme level of concern.

In the center of the legionary camp, there was a big man sleeping. His face had the marks of lack of rest that were healing. Those that knew him would say he never looked as healthy as he was now.

In some parts of the camp there was smoke, from all the cooking. The smell of chicken and spices was being sent to the wind. That would also be a sigh of concern if one knew the Brotherhood.

Badly singing a woman with a metal ring on her neck. Yelled with impressive lungs "Food is ready, come to eat you lazy bastards!"

The group starts moving to a big table. And, with all the noise, the big man awakes, opens his eyes and starts to move. He makes a gesture to the woman. Which throws to him the metal ring. He continues to walk while putting it on his own neck after that he sits at the head of the table. The group continues to talk about the end of the days and how great it is so far.

Over the sounds of the banquet, another sound gradually makes itself known: the clopping of hooves. Louder and louder, until it couldn't be missed, a team of Bronze Aurochs pulled a carriage large enough to seat half a dozen people. It came to a stop just outside the camp, and three people came out. First was a tall, lanky man in black clothes, but rather than the usual simple long cloak, he had gone with something a little more eye-catching.

A collection of blacks and bright blues surrounded a sturdy breastplate, bracers and greaves, and a short cape fluttered at his back. Halfway between something ceremonial and something one would wear to a war, Gaius had picked this little number out to look both strong and diplomatic. But, looking at the people assembled, he had to wonder if he'd perhaps overdressed.

At his side was Penelope, dressed in a more understated Centurion's uniform, with only a few small customizations to make it stand out. She carried in one hand a thick roll of parchment, and held it as securely as if it were a precious artifact. Behind the two was a Legionnaire, dressed plainly and carrying a chisel and jade slip; a scribe, to record this negotiation.

Gaius looked around, not quite sure how to start things off. He eventually decided on something simple. "I see you're having dinner. I apologize, I didn't mean to interrupt."


Blinking once, the big man at the head of the table looks at the stronger Golden Devil. There was a pulse of Qi from his neck. Followed by a form of organized Chaos that just exploded from the impressive reaction of the eldery.

All of them raised from the table, some rock pillars raised and closed the bird in a cage. While some of the eldery star running back to the cooking area.

As one the rest bowed deeply and said "We salute Legate Gaius"

From some legionaries pockets come food and candies, after another (stronger) pulse of Qi. Some good cigars were put on the top of the table.

With the crew sting bowing and only the crew in the cooking area moving, the builder raises and walks to meet the Clan newest Legate.

"Legate, you are interrupting nothing, what can we do to you on this day?"

Gaius took a few steps back,in shock at the speed of the response. He cast a confused look at his second-in-command, who gave him only a hopeless shrug in return. "How, how did they…" He looked back at The Builder nervously - this wasn't the reception he'd expected at all. "I would ask how you knew who I was, but you folks seem to like your ceremony." He smiled, adjusting to the pleasant surprise. "So I'll enjoy it and let you keep your secrets. I'd like to offer you a deal, Mister…"

The big man nodded to that and said "I am the second builder, and we have no secret to a fellow brother-in-arms. Much less someone we still make mural art of. From the actions that you and the rest of the elite of the clan did that saved Abel Angelus" he said and even pointed to a tent that had a tapestry like art on It, that shows a grotesque looking hunter being completely dominated by a younger Zeno Angelus.

After that the second builder looked at the new legate and said "we will do our best to do anything that you wish for us to do. Just like good legionaries should" getting nods of approval from all the other old people in the camp.

"This isn't exactly a single job, more of a long term assignment. And you have plenty to gain here as well." Gaius looked around at the camp, marvelling at the degree of comfort the Brotherhood had managed to construct at a mere worksite. "It would be better to discuss this privately, it's a bit complicated."


Nodding to that, the builder moves close to the caged bird, his face starts to bulge with an impressive amount of muscle by using some kind of art while an impressive expression of fury was made.

"Flying-rat" the bird cries in indignation only to get hit by the wind that had come off from the explosion of movement that was made by a giant palm. "Flying-rat" he said only to continue "you either do not work for the Great Pengs or are a sanctioned spy. If it is the second case you will be treated later on with all courtesy which we can provide. But we know that it is not only the eyes that those of your blood can improve. If you dare. To spy. On. A legate". He said and made a giant pause. "Your suffering will be the stuff of legends. My brother, the 5th brother, will show you the book of pain, so that you are aware how far is our imagination" getting a nod from an unhealthy man close by.

The crazy man said that and moved to a commanding tent that was just raised while he was threatening the bird.

Gaius dipped his head down a bit as he stepped into the tent, his two companions following close behind. He took a seat at the central table and waited for the Second Builder to sit opposite him before continuing. "I met your predecessor a while back - I'm surprised you're all still talking about me, I was just a Legionnaire then. Anyway, I met him… Was it fifty years ago? No, forty-seven, because it was at the Trials." He lit up one of the cigars the Brotherhood had given him, and paused as it touched his lips. "My favorite blend? How did you…"

Penelope, who was standing behind Gaius, kicked him in the shin under the table, which made him sputter and shake his head, breaking him out of that tangent before it could start.

"Er, anyway! What I'm saying is, you've got a lot more members now. Back then, it was less than one hundred."

The old Man blinked to that, there was a pulse of qi from his neck, which seems to be a back and forward from two sources of Qi, "we were closer to 10,000 at that time counting the mortals. We only send the ones that succeed in become cultivators on that day"

"Nowadays, we don't know the exact numbers because more mortal brothers are either trying to be part of the brotherhood each day. Or being born in the brotherhood. Our second generation alone is making for an impressive amount of adorable babies" The crazy man said with unfocused eyes, seems to have a little bit off.

"I'm glad to hear you're so prosperous; that will be good for both of us." Gaius held up a hand, and the Centurion behind him gave him the roll of parchment. "With the new era, the air around here isn't so dead anymore, and nobody stands to benefit more than your order. My offer will make sure we both prosper - and profit - from these times."

Grinning, The Seeker put the parchment down on the table, but kept his hand atop it, keeping it rolled up. A bit grandiose, maybe, but he'd been in a grandiose mood ever since he left that mental prison and taken his rightful place. "They say a Fourth Heavenstage can sustain themself in the desert with just that air, now, and you folks use the air a lot better than others. How many members are in the Fourth Heavenstage now?"

Nodding to that the builder starts to think hard while having a continuous flow of Qi coming from the neck. He said with a voice that sounded a little bit different. "Of that level or above we have 190 brothers, counting all of the core members and Diomedes' scions. Give us 20 years, are we able to provide closer to 300 in that exact level". Said The Builder.

"That's perfect. I'll take them all!" Gaius declared, raising his hand and letting the parchment roll out to its full length. Fully unfurled, the contract was thousands of words long; to even fit it all on one large page, the writing was quite small. "All the ones that aren't with Diomedes, of course; I'm no thief."

As The Builder read the contract, Gaius summarized it. "If you sign this, we'll enter a long-term partnership. When a Brotherhood member reaches the Fourth Heavenstage, they'll enter my Legion, the 433rd Stargazers, as an Aspirant. Since they don't use stones, we'll instead pay them twice as many points as the other Aspirants. They will, of course, use many of their points to help the Brotherhood as they always have. You'll grow in numbers quicker, which gives us more Aspirants, and their labor will grow the Legion faster. Which means bigger missions, which means more points, and so on."

He grinned and tapped the blank line at the bottom. "All you have to do is sign here, and we'll be very good friends."

The flow of Qi moving around the neck had grown so strong that it started to make the ring look a bit red. The big man truly went deeply inside himself and even started to breathe so much air that would kill a mortal. He then muttered the words "The Seeker". And continue to think hard for a bit. When he opened his eyes once more his entire posture was different. He moved to his neck and removed the iron ring. Then the second posture returns to his previous one. From the ring he took an amulet that was kept inside.

"Since you will be the military leader of so many of our brothers we should inform you that we are trying to make more of these so called 'living wills', this one hold the first builder, Xi-Wang" the older looking man said only to continue.

"Since there will be times you want a spy, there will be times you will need to allow your soldiers to die and you certainly need to know your soldiers' full capacity. And having some that are capable and willing to die for your cause would make for another ace under your sleeve would it not". Said the second builder.

Gaius gasped. "A Living Will? You even have those?" He tilted his head, eyeing the amulet closely and feeling the edges of the consciousness leashed within. "That's a very precious thing; most people wouldn't even tell an Elder about something like that. Hmm…" He cradled his chin between his fingers, pondering the problem set before him. "Making more Living Wills? There… may be ways I could help with that. I would need some time to figure it out, but I might be able to replicate that amulet, with some help."
When the Legate said that the second builder tried to remove something from his back. A bit embarrassed he looked to Gaius and commented "I have one prototype in my possession, we only failed to bring to it a spark, a living will have a soul after all, and none of use can do those difficult arts" cough, he continue "with you permission I will leave the tent for a bit to take the disk off my back, otherwise I would need to remove some of my clothes" he finished.

Gaius waved his hand, and the tent flap opened. "Take your time, I'm in no rush. I came here to parlay after all." He glanced up at Penelope, who seemed pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things had gone thus far, and at the scribe, who was frantically recording the whole conversation and probably wondering if it was alright for him to be hearing all this.

Returning with an object being kept under some clothes. The second builder closed the tent once more. And show them two giant disk made of gravebroze, the 'lesser' one had a amount of arrays so great that it should had take the creator years, the second one was even more elaborate with arrays so small that thing look like a mirror. The builder carefully put both on the desk and start explaining "we use what we learn of computer with Abel Angelus and some other creations of his like the standard form of arrays, and so far we create what can be called 'less dumb wills'" he said and get three pulse of qi, two from the disks, "they agree". He commented.

"A cheaper way of making and preserving Living Wills, huh?" Gaius leaned forward, struggling to take in the sheer volume of array-script. "It would be a big project, and I couldn't make it happen by myself, but if you sign the contract, I'd happily help you where I can."

Gaius tapped his forehead, and suddenly a third eye opened from a vertical socket, letting him analyze the script from more angles. "I'm not a Soul Arts specialist, but I am a practitioner of them. I happen to know some very capable crafters as well. And Dao Magic makes interesting things happen, when you use a lot of it over a long time. I'll see what I can do. Seems like a fun project anyhow."

With some metaphoric weight being removed from his shoulders, and getting visible younger from the release tension, the second builder commented. "So long as we can reach that goal and continue to protect our family, we are willing to offer everything we have and we are"

Gaius smiled warmly. "I'm honored that you'd entrust these souls to me. I'll take good care of them."

And so, The Builder gladly signed the pact.

 

[no.]

Gaius Antonius Omake #76 - The Day of Fate, Part 5: Desolation​

"You know what? I don't feel bad about skipping challenges anymore." Gaius smirked, feeling a pleasant warmth at his back from what was no doubt a horrible fire up above. "This fucking place wants to throw armies of enemies at me? I'm going to loot as much as I can, no more games."

Scylla burbled in agreement, still exhausted from the titanic struggle on the previous floor.

"Yeah, fuck these caves. From this point forward, all we gotta worry about is winning." Once more, Gaius retrieved Abel's breathing mask and pressed it to his face, taking slow, deliberate breaths. "This one, then two more, and we can ascend."

There was only one word for it: blessed. Gaius was truly, amazingly blessed that this cave network let him use his signature traversal so freely. Even if he couldn't skip floors, just being able to bypass so many problems was a major boon. After all, in a place like this, wounds added up, bringing one's downfall bit by bit, so digging under this magical conflagration rather than risk his body was invaluable.

Once the air in his bubble grew too thin to bear any longer, Gaius pressed the breathing mask to his face. Another ten minutes or so was more than enough. Just like the last chamber, this one was miles wide, though still not quite as large as that battlefield. Earth-Gliding was more than fast enough to cross it in one go though; the far wall was already in view, another barrier similar to the ones between the floors. Now that Gaius knew they existed, he could sense them if he focused.

Emerging from the ground, Gaius stiffened at the sensation of heat at his back as the billowing flames blew hot wind all over the place. No need to even look back at that nightmare, he thought.

Turning to the exit, The Seeker beheld a grotesque statue, a demon with a twisted body, mocking the human form through its very existence. From a snarling maw, its tongue emerged, a single drop of liquid beading on the tip. It was blood, because of course it was fucking blood again, and grey smoke curled around it, seemingly emerging from the drop itself.

…the cave was safe, sort of. The cave had strict rules, and it abided by them, one of these rules being that there were no useless prizes. That much was well-known, and Gaius repeated this to himself again and again as he stepped under the statue. He was not being poisoned, he was not being possessed, these gifts were genuine, even if it seemed like the most obvious corruption in the world.

"Again with the macabre shit. Just give me some rare materials, won't you? Don't make me drink this shit." Gaius grumbled, though he couldn't really be mad. "Now, I wonder what kind of blood you are…"

Opening his mouth wide and sticking out his tongue, Gaius reached up and tapped his finger against the statue, making the droplet ripple and tremble. Ever so carefully, he kept it up not being hasty, not wanting to spill or waste his reward. Finally, the surface tension broke, and the blood fell onto Gaius' tongue.

The memory which assaulted Gaius this time was not of tangible, comprehensible experience but of heat. Of experiencing it, and of being it. Bubbling, roaring, surging, cracking, guttering. His limbs seized up and shook violently as a searing phantom pain assaulted his nerves, and the primal idea of flame itself was imprinted directly onto Gaius' body, qi and soul.

Pitching forward, Gaius fell to his knees, panting breathlessly as steam rose from his skin, the moisture in his body slowly boiling away under the sheer intensity of the infusion. Unnatural dark red flames spread across his skin, onto his hair, into his mouth, but while the ravenous heat tormented his senses, his flesh did not actually cook. Gaius would endure this pain; he could take much more than this.

After a few minutes, the fire flickered out, sinking into his skin and settling inside his veins and meridians. Gaius got back to his feet, dazed and dehydrated but otherwise feeling no worse for wear. In his mind was a single word, placed there by some recorded knowledge or arcane force: Blood Forge.

——

The twelfth chamber, more than anything, was disjointed. The tunnel opened right into another entrance, this one tilted noticeably to the side. Cautiously stepping through, Gaius found himself in not the rough, natural-looking chambers that were the prior floors, but something more obviously artificial. This was a building; an entire stone structure, some castle or temple or something, jammed into a single chamber of the Cloud Caves.

This was not the sort of stone that lined the cave walls, but pale yellow sandstone. Gaius stepped around a deep, wide crack which split the room in two, running his hand along a wall. A script he did not recognize was carved into the sandstone in neat, blocky characters - a message, or a warning?

As he continued further down, it became more and more clear that this was not the sort of structure the Cloud Caves produced on their own. The architecture was different, and it had clearly not been maintained in the slightest. Walls had holes in them or had crumbled entirely, doors had fallen off their hinges, carvings and statues were unrecognizable, worn smooth by the passage of time.

Down a spiral staircase and into a wide-open chamber, Gaius was once more confronted with destruction. A huge statue, its head long since gone, brandished some unrecognizable object. Before it was a stone slab, upon which neatly-stacked piles of stones sat. Array circles surrounded the slab, glowing an eerie green, and before Gaius could consider the situation, an identical series of circles sprung up around his own feet.

The stones shook, then levitated into the air, clustering together until they formed a humanoid shape. Qi began pooling in the construct, elevating higher and higher until it peaked in the Thirteenth heavenstage. Gaius drew his sword and fell back into a defensive stance, ready to fight, but then something went wrong.

One segment of the array circle flickered and sparked, unstable qi bursting hither and thither, steaming out in random directions. The construct's qi began to climb once more. One-Pillar, Two, Three, Four, it wasn't slowing down at all. Gaius leapt backwards repeatedly, putting over fifty feet of distance between himself and this golem. Yet further it climbed, reaching a level of strength equivalent to Great Circle Foundation and breaking through even that.

"I don't think that's right. Administrator!? System!? You fucked it up again!" Gaius' gaze darted around as he fruitlessly as he called for something, anything that could help. He backed up a few steps, and the golem, mercifully, did not advance, merely shaking and spasming in place, as if figuring out how to use its own body. This was, apparently, really going to happen, it was just a thing now.

This was wrong, horribly wrong. Ten thousand Qi-Draining Bats? Sure, that was a challenge built for a true legend of Qi Condensation. But a Core enemy? That wasn't a challenge, it was a plan and simple execution. It couldn't be a test, because absolutely anything the entrant brought forth would be inevitably invalidated by the two realm difference. Therefore, whatever system created this golem had to be broken.

Gaius snarled as the doppelganger, looking more and more like Gaius by the second, began to advance on him with jerky, uncoordinated footsteps. He took off toward the nearest door, drawing his Celestial Bronze dagger. "I didn't come all this way to get done in by a clerical error!" He cried out defiantly, impaling the blade into the ceiling and dragging it as he ran, cleanly cutting through the stone as he went.

The golem advanced, quickly eating up the distance between the two, only for the ceiling to collapse on top of it as it entered the doorway, caving in and leaving a hallway filled with debris between the two.

"Alright, this is doable!" Gaius declared as he took a direction he was pretty sure led to the exit. "Just don't let him catch me!"

Several minutes later, The Seeker felt like he was no closer to escape; the continuous erosion made everything in here look just about the same, all smooth, dreary beige. Several more minutes, and it was all the same; he was pretty sure he'd been going up, which was probably wrong; the caves go down, after all.

These thoughts were rudely interrupted as, with a loud crash, the wall beside Gaius was smashed down, and an impact crashed into a hastily-raised shield. He went sailing, smashing through the opposite wall and into another hallway entirely, before embedding his body a few inches into a second wall. In that moment, he caught a glimpse of the golem; it looked kind of like Gaius, though still badly misshapen. It was more like an insulting caricature.

Was this the end? Was he about to be killed here and now? Gaius forced breath back into his lungs, dashed down the corridor and into a small chamber off to the side, ready to mount a desperate defense-

Only for the clone to run right past him. It didn't even turn its head, just rushing down the hallway at top speed as if the room weren't there. Gaius blinked, then blinked again, wondering if perhaps a trick had been played on him. Then, he doubled over and clasped both hands over his nose and mouth, desperately trying not to laugh and give his position away.

What a piece of shit! Not only was the clone too strong, it barely functioned! Its senses were dull, its intelligence was rudimentary and it attacked in straight lines. For these reasons alone, Gaius remained alive, creeping through the halls slowly and quietly, rather than trying to rush to the end. The ground shook and chips of stone fell from above as if, spurred on by the original's derisive thoughts, the clone smashed through a wall somewhere. Perhaps it saw a rat move.

But how was Gaius to actually win here? If this was truly an accident rather than an intended challenge, then what was he meant to do? The Caves had simply given this enemy too much power. Given it too much… Given…

That's right! This power was not the clone's norm, but provided through the surrounding arrays, which themselves were being fueled by the caves. Without those, it was nothing but a doll! The golem was held together only by Gaius' presence in the ruins, which allowed it to take his shape, so without him there, it would return to its passive state. Gaius had to believe this, not just because it made sense, but because if it was true, it meant he could win.

Ducking into a dark room, Gaius held his breath as his doppelganger came by again, peering down the hallway. After several excruciatingly tense moments, it left, stalking off to look elsewhere; at the speed it ate up ground, that bought him another minute to freely move.

Shadows danced in the light of flickering torches, burning within brazierres of a strange design Gaius didn't recognize. Every step risked ruin, and the maze-like hallways of the ruin made it no easier. Occasionally, Gaius would find a wide-open area, which he would avoid like a plague. Sound would echo far too much in those places.

From the statues inserted into alcoves in the walls, the big, wide open spaces with high ceilings, and the smaller chambers which seemingly served no purpose but to house big, flat raised slabs, this probably was a temple. A place where some long-forgotten deity was worshipped, or some ancient cultivation method was performed. A piece of history, of culture, swallowed up by this gaping maw in the earth.

Finally, blessedly, The Seeker found his way out: a staircase leading out into… well, not outside, but the outside part of the chamber. Bounding up and out in a few quick leaps, Gaius found himself on the flat roof of the ruined building, cracked and bent and crooked. Spiritually reinforced or not, this place was clearly on its last legs, and in a few more centuries it would be entirely broken. In a strange way, he felt grateful that he got to see it.

Heavy steps seemed to shake the world itself, seemed to become one with Gaius' thundering heartbeat, as the golem once more caught onto Gaius' position and went for the stairs as well. Gaius sprinted across the roof, reaching the edge just as the clone reached the top of the stairs. Before him was a towering tree, one of many plants growing out of and all over the ruined building. Past it, the finish line was a mere twenty feet away, the chamber's exit beckoning like the doorway to a comfortable home.

A few more seconds, and Gaius would be at the goal. He needed merely to jump onto this tree, then jump off an outcropping branch, which would take him across the finish line. He landed, already in a crouch, muscles ready to explode into action, when a shadow fell upon him from above.

The clone was already there - of course it was, it was in Core Formation. Gaius would not see the attack coming, and there was no time to look anyway. This single instant would determine the outcome.

The clone would launch an attack at the ground, and Gaius' leap would just barely clear the blast zone. He would reach the branch at the same time as the clone, who would swing his sword right through Gaius' neck. To avoid that outcome, Gaius would keep his head up as he landed, then duck down, making the clone miss. Then he would leap forward and be impaled before crossing the line, unable to avoid a Core Formation attack in any way while mid-air.

Jump higher? No, he would still be hit. To the side? No, he would be cleaved in two. Every option led to death. Another precious millisecond ticked by as Gaius' instincts tried to concoct a way out. The clone! Was there anything about the clone which could be exploited? It was like Gaius, but in Early Core Formation and made of stone; what part of that could be its undoing?

What was the catch that made this chamber possible for someone in Qi Condensation? What was the cave doing to balance out this near-certain death? What had it given him?

"The tree, the tree is rotten! The loser is he who trusts in the foothold and not his own power!"

The moment passed, and the clone swung its sword down, but Gaius had already jumped. The ground exploded, kicking up debris, and the clone leapt to intercept him. Rather than land on the branch, Gaius twisted in mid-air, vaulting over the obstacle and falling to the ground. The clone landed on the branch, inchoate power swirling around its blade as it brought forth the full might of its body-

crack

The branch broke, unable to hold up its stone body. The clone flung its sword, but the attack went just wide, missing The Seeker's head by inches. He dashed forward, completing the final step and crossing the finish line.

The doppelganger cried out in frustration as its body crumbled, losing coherence and devolving into a pile of ordinary stones. Beneath this outer layer, an amorphous film filled with qi and fluid was revealed, presumably the impostor's true essence.

Gaius backed against the wall, panting, as the Floor Guardian's essence burst out into a blue-white haze, saturating the air with qi. Gaius drank deeply, taking in more and more until his channels were full to bursting, but that wasn't even one percent. "Come on, I can't use any of this…" Gaius muttered, clicking his tongue in disappointment.

Without any warning or explanation, Scylla leapt out of her tank and transformed, swimming restlessly through the air above the doorway. Gaius at first wondered if his companion had been hurt, but she seemed totally fine, if strangely shaken. No, Scylla was… cultivating?

That wasn't the right word for it, because she didn't seem to be developing herself further. Indeed, in this False Foundation Building form, such a thing was not possible. Rather than cycling through her dantian, Scylla endlessly sucked the energy into her beast core, where it spiralled into the mysterious organ and vanished from Gaius' senses. Wordlessly the fish continued, locking away more and more power for hours on end until the entire golem had been consumed. When her transformation dissipated, she mustered up enough strength to jump back into the tank, but otherwise remained in that trance for the entire duration.

Finally, the blue haze faded, leaving only a newly-cleared chamber. Gaius couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated; not only could his companion perform whatever internal development she was doing after her cultivation itself was halted, but she could do it when Gaius was held up as well. "Did you have a nice meal?" He asked, to a very groggy response. "Take your time, there's no rush. We'll do the next one when you're ready."

—-

From the very first moment, the thirteenth floor was odd. The narrow tunnel opened up to a vista far vaster in scope than any of the three prior floors, so wide that no walls were visible. Stranger still the sky was wide open, no ceiling in sight either, and the sun beat down from above as intensely as the real one. All that could be seen was endless rolling dunes, dry and desolate and uninviting.

Was he outside? Gaius turned back and peered into the hallway he came from. It sloped upward, as expected. Perplexed, he crossed the threshold, then turned back to see… nothing. The entrance was gone as well.

"That's fine." Gaius muttered. "Fuck with space all you want, I'll still win."

Gaius walked at a slow pace with quiet steps, all of his senses opened to the world around him. In every way, this desert was like a void; the wind carried no taste or smell but that of the sand, which itself was nothing but raw sediment, free of even microbial life. It all looked the same too, as if born from one single titanic stone, ground up into identical grains. The wind blew slowly, just loud enough to hear as it crested over the taller dunes.

Seeing all this, Gaius was sure that there must be no qi at all, but even that was wrong. There was actually an amazing amount of qi in the air, by a desert-dweller's standards at least. Not enough to cultivate meaningfully(not that he could, with nowhere left to put the qi), but enough to sustain him indefinitely. With this much qi in the air, there should have been more, should have been water and plantlife and soil that wasn't so devoid of moisture. It felt deeply unnatural, as if life itself had been banished from this place.

Though he remained on his guard for hours, nothing answered Gaius but the howling of the wind over the dunes. Nothing attacked him, and nothing changed; it was as if the cave itself had become indifferent to his existence. Gaius smirked and sat down cross-legged with his arms crossed. This was definitely an odd one, but if it was patience they wanted, Gaius had that in spades.

What would it be? A sandworm, perhaps? Or an elemental spirit? Or perhaps the desert itself was his enemy, filled with nearly-undetectable traps. There was no rush, no need to hastily expose himself. Gaius would wait for something to disturb him, and if nothing came within a few days, only then would he search.

Once he realized that Scylla's tank was no longer on his back, Gaius was embarrassed at how long it had taken him to notice. Checking their Beast Bond link, he could feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that Scylla was entirely unharmed, but trying to feel the distance, he got nothing but jumbled nonsense signals. He called out for her over and over, both verbally and mentally, but got no response. At the very least, she seemed perfectly fine in every way; perhaps she had been excluded from the chamber.

When an entire week had passed with absolutely nothing happening, Gaius began to walk. The sun didn't move, remaining right in the middle of the sky at all times, so he simply chose a random direction and moved in what he hoped was a straight line. After hours of travel, no landmarks came into view, no life could be sensed, and the dunes continued on endlessly.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, Gaius dove beneath the earth and rocketed ahead, surfacing when needed, and continued like that for days. Still nothing. No matter how far The Seeker traveled, it all remained the same. The same heat, the same dryness, the same world of yellow and white and blue.

After six months, Gaius realized his body was not wasting away. Qi Condensation still needed to eat, and he had long since succumbed to hunger and consumed his ration tins. No matter how long he went without the things he needed, his body would not degrade. In a sick sense, he'd attained the ultimate goal of every Cultivator, here in this trial.

Giving up on hope of finding answers under his own power, Gaius came to the obvious conclusion: the waiting was the point. A test of endurance, to reach a prize. He could do this easily.

After five years, Gaius was angry. He would rather just fight something to the death - that way he would have power over his own fate. Being made to wait for so long was humiliating. Most people would have lost their sanity already, with nothing at all to do, not even cultivation, but Gaius stubbornly kept at it, making a bulwark of his resolve and facing down the emptiness.

After ten years, Gaius began to train. He had already been performing his daily routines, but it had taken a long time for it to sink in that his body was truly needless now. He could not improve himself physically, kept in this eternal physical stagnation, but he could hone his skills. Every move, every technique, every maneuver Gaius had ever learned, he practiced millions of times over the coming decades. When his qi was spent, he waited until the air topped him back up; having no material needs, there was no reason to rest beyond that.

The Aegis grew in leaps and bounds through this endless experimentation, taking on greater shapes and numbers with increasing ease. So too did the Blood Forge Constitution make itself known, through experimentation rather than instruction. The crimson fire danced at his command, equal parts Fire, Soul and Metal, reshaping his weapons however he wished and burning targets with destructive force. Nonetheless, the flames felt hollow, and Gaius knew in his soul that it was incomplete.

After fifty years, Gaius tried to call down his tribulation.

He did it on a whim, as boredom hollowed out his mind. Everyone has limits, after all, and whatever prize lay at the end of this trial was no longer worth it. Perhaps if he could ascend now, it would enable him to find his way out of the chamber.

The lightning did not come. Static electricity exploded all around his body, raging randomly, trying to call down the power of Heaven, but there was no answer. Wherever Gaius was, he was utterly isolated, and not even divine judgment could find him. He fell to his knees and wailed in despair.

——

I feel like this one perhaps ended up a little rushed. In truth, I wanted to get to the cliffhanger relatively quickly, because it makes for a pretty good point to leave the Cave off for a while while I work in some more collabs.

Don't have too much to say about these floors. The first two were not particularly inspiring to me, and the real meat of the thirteenth chamber is being saved for the next chapter. Ah well, they can't all be big winners.