PtM 18 - Chapter 23: A New Path

Three chapters again this week. 1/3.

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Spatial waves slapped across the hull of Cha Ming’s twenty-three-winged ship as it cut through the void between continents. It stuck to the edge of the water-filled continent, as the Inkwell Clan’s scouts were difficult to spot and would grow more numerous deeper in.

Cha Ming cultivated board the ship as he travelled, only occasionally inspecting the debris belt decorating the fringes of the Central Inkwell Sea for suitable planar materials. Adequate materials were growing more difficult to find, so he didn’t stop often.

Cultivation. It was a strange notion to the current Cha Ming, who could no longer peacefully advance by imbibing energy. His inner world produced a constant trickle of Clearmist from the primal chaos energy it extracted from the void. He could use it to fight, use it to craft, or it to build the growing demiplanes in his inner world.

Bur Cha Ming did not do so, because his inner world had already reached the limit thanks to Sun Wukong’s infusion of energy. Cha Ming didn’t want to waste any energy, so he thought up a way to bypass his energy storage limitations. By concentrating the energies using the Second Truth of Mists and assembling them into solid form, he could produce saint grade crystals with energy that was many times more potent than he could normally cultivate.

I need to save as much as I can for when I build my fourth and fifth demiplanes, thought Cha Ming. Water-based materials shouldn’t be ap problem, since there’s water everywhere, but other materials will surely be lacking. Metal, for example was the second-rarest element after fire on the Inkwell Plane. It was for this reason that Serrendil and the Clockwork Clan had been doing so poorly back in the Burning Lake Prefecture.

“I’m bored,” said Ninesky. Cha Ming twitched as Ninesky flew onto his shoulder and interrupted a brush stroke. Hours of effort became undone as he failed yet again at solving a piece of Fuxi’s puzzle box.

“Find a hobby,” Cha Ming said to Ninesky. “Solve a crossword puzzle or something.”

“Boring,” said Ninesky.

Cha Ming tried to ignore the sprite and made another attempt at the current puzzle. Despite his constant growth over the past half years, his runework had fallen behind his effective cultivation. Yet despite tens of times, he still could not break through his limitations.

“Don’t you have something better to do?” asked Cha Ming. “Can’t you bother Luther or something?”

“You’re supposed to be fun,” Ninesky said. “But instead of going out and doing fun things, you’re always working. And the kittens in your inner world are also boring. All Luther does all day is drink and watch the other two play.”

“I’m not the one who asked to come to the real world,” said Cha Ming. “You want constant and continuous fun? Go make another dream world.”

“Would that I could,” said Ninesky with a sigh. “All my energy is tied up in this reality, and I can no longer freely take it back.”

Cha Ming rolled his eyes and continued his work. But to be safe, he spun off an incarnation to accompany Ninesky inside the Clear Sky World. She demanded a war of paintings. He lost horribly, much to Ninesky’s delight.

Runes are the foundation of all things, Cha Ming thought as he immersed himself in Fuxi’s puzzle box once again. There are many types runic arts, and the art taught by Fuxi’s puzzle box has to do with tales and stories.

The path of stories was opposite the Runebound Clan’s path of mathematics and precision. It was also very different from the Star-Eye Clan’s path of connections and constellations. Yet in the end, there were similarities; every clan, every sect, and every powerhouse relied on the same old runes. It was only the application method that varied.

There were three levels to Fuxi’s puzzle box. Cha Ming had solved the first two sections to obtain two rewards from Elder Ling. Solving the first level had required Cha Ming to realize that talismans were stories. Clearing the second level had required him to incorporate emotions into these stories.

To Cha Ming’s knowledge, the third phase involved identifying the ‘characters’ in each runic story. These characters would interact with other minor characters depending on the structure of said stories. Their actions would be driven and embellished by emotions.

“Failed again,” muttered Cha Ming as an incorrect stroke reset Fuxi’s puzzle box. He’d seen the failure coming form a mile away. He felt uncomfortable while painting, and in his experience, this didn’t mean he was making a mistake. “This approach. It isn’t suited to me.”

The way of stories was the way of the Inky Sea Sect and had many applications. Elder Ling, for example, wielded poetic talismans. He had used this approach to reach the pinnacle of talisman arts on the Inkwell Plane. To advance, Cha Ming would need to find his own unique approach to talisman crafting.

Since he was unable to crack the puzzle box, Cha Ming focused on other productive tasks. For starters, he familiarized himself with his lates piece of regalia, a crystal-jade crown that sparkled with faint starlight. The Crown of the Starry Sky’s previous abilities were still there and had been enhanced. His eyesight was now much keener, to the point that he could now see and calculate karma.

All karma leads to danger, thought Cha Ming as he untangled the various threads. And it’s not just might own karma, but the karma of everything I gaze upon. This all but confirmed the Monkey King’s assertion that the Inkwell Plane was heading for a great catastrophe.

Another function of the crown was its newly evolved ability, Star-Jade Entanglement. It was as versatile ability that drew on karma to calculate and predict. It was thanks to this ability that he knew he was heading in the right direction and knew that Elder Ling was also heading in this direction.

Cultivation was an endless journey. When one path closed off, another would open. Since he couldn’t upgrade his runework, he set his sights on his armies and paintings.

Cha Ming’s energy was now much denser now that he’d assimilated the Jade Memory Demiplane, and could therefore display the might of more powerful runes.

He first turned his attention to the two original armies in his inner world: The Undying of Flamewing and the Deathless of Claw-Vice. They had horrendous casualties in the battle with the Tree of Good and Evil, and required both replenishing and restructuring.

The painted armies were supported by the essence of their respective demiplane, so the quantity of available ‘ink’ was limited. He could at best supplement them with his Dao energy, but their root energy couldn’t be changed.

In the past, Cha Ming would have uniformly upgraded the army using his increased energy density. This time, however, he decided on a different approach. He spread out his three law projections over the two demiplanes, blessing each army with the Shattered Form, Bound Energy, and Modular Life laws.

He then focused on the individual paintings in his army. They might look the same, but each one had gone through different trials and survived different battles. As such, they could be considered individuals. Cha Ming used his new eyesight to paint an identity brand that suited each of these paintings. From now on, there would be veterans and young masters, cripples and prodigies among his paintings.

Sensing his intentions, the will of each of his three demiplanes immediately organized a grand tournament. The paintings Cha Ming marked would undergo several rounds of battle. In between each round, the victorious paintings would be given the opportunity to improve themselves in whatever way they ‘chose’. In the end, only the strongest paintings would become elites. The rest would become backups in the main army.

Over the next few days, each demiplane consumed frightening amounts of Clearmist to foster their respective armies. A new batch of Deathless emerged, each with stronger claws and tougher shells than before. A hundred and eight variations on the same theme emerged from the ashes of the old army.

A hundred and eight varieties of crabs thought Cha Ming. Nature really does find a way.

The Undying of Flamewing pursued a different path. There was similarly a hundred and eight varieties of Flamewing paintings, but how they different was mostly color. Instead of optimizing their current traits, the Flamewing paintings had chosen to emulate different forms of energy and transform their individual roots.

The Jade Memory Demiplane had it hardest, as it was tasked with both producing and training an army of paintings simultaneously. Fortunately, the Flower of Memory was no slouch, and produced an army of flowers. They were extremely ugly, to the point that Ninesky almost destroyed the entire Demiplane. Cha Ming was forced to intervene and optimized their appearances so that they were less of an eyesore.

Aesthetics aside, their effectiveness couldn’t be questioned. The Unforgotten of Jade Memory were skilled in mental attacks and bewitchment. As long as a single petal remained from each flower, they could be rebuilt according to their recorded ‘memories’.

These three armies were naturally very powerful, but against saint-rank experts, they were still lacking. In the end, Cha Ming could only rely on himself.

Cha Ming decided to optimize his paintings next. He had three main paintings: Broken Yin, Shattered Yang, The Great Devourer, and Descent of the Five Sovereigns. Each of them contained its own intricacies and required several days of planning before he was comfortable modifying them.

For Broken Yin, Shattered Yang he decided that the two phoenixes perched on the mulberry tree would become the focus on the painting. One of the phoenixes would be lively and full of energy, and the other lethargic and ghostly.

Descent of the Five Sovereigns was difficult to enhance with Cha Ming’s current attainments. The sovereigns themselves could not be improved without gathering their remaining five techniques, so he could only expand on their elemental interactions and their personal relationships.

Cha Ming expanded on the main character of the Great Devourer, himself. A hidden cultivator and paintbrush appeared in the star-speckled backdrop of the painting where void creatures wandered. In the end, all three paintings reached the late rune carving grade. Since Dao Energy was used as a medium, these paintings were as powerful as peak rune carving treasures.

Once Cha Ming’s paintings and armies were fully optimized, Cha Ming no longer knew what else to work on. He could only set his sights back on the ever-frustrating Fuxi’s puzzle box. The feeling of wrongness hadn’t gone away, and before long, he could no longer take it.

The puzzle box’s approach is built on stories and their structure, Cha Ming thought. But stories can be told in different ways. For example, there’s no reason why a story couldn’t be told using mathematical equations. It depends on the audience and their appreciation of the medium.

He ran his finger across the puzzle box and wiped away all prior progress. Golden runes appeared on the puzzle box in neat rows, solving stage after stage in quick succession. Cha Ming did not draw upon the concept of stories, and instead focused on a purely mathematical interpretation of runic characters.

The number of golden runes quickly grew in number. There were similarities in each path, and as such, his initial progress was extremely quick. The runes eventually linked together in circular arrangements resembling proofs.

He quickly reached the peak of rune carving in talismans, then used this basis derive greater proofs. An outer circle was added, and he continued expanding them until he reached the peak of rune gathering.

Law stitching talismans required a qualitative leap in understanding and methodology. But this did not stop Cha Ming, who had studied the Runebound Clan’s mathematical method. He used miniaturized circles as the core to greater linked circles that operated in several dimensions. It wasn’t long before he surpassed his original progress on the path of stories.

Could I actually be suited to the path of perfection? thought Cha Ming. No, he realized. The feeling of wrongness has returned. As for the Star-Eye Clan’s runecraft, it relies on the stars and connections and karma. I could try it with my new divine ability, but I doubt I could make good progress.

The Iridescent Clan’s runecraft, on the other hand, revolves around light and color. As for the Clockwork Clan’s runecraft, I have yet to experience, but I’d bet my brush it revolves around sound and harmony.

Cha Ming could faintly sense that neither of these paths were suited to him. But if those paths didn’t suit them, what did? What was he if not the product of his experiences?

I’m a demigod. I’m a Daoist. I am an angel. I have a powerful inner world and fused energies. I am a craftsman. I am a builder. I am….  He realised it then. I am a painter. I

Could he build an entirely different runic path using paintings? He didn’t have a reference point for this idea, but something about it resonated with the core of Cha Ming’s being.

There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to use paintings,thought Cha Ming. If Elder Ling can use poems, paintings are fair game.

He once again reset his progress and started solving Fuxi’s puzzle box from the beginning. Instead of runes, he painted images that flowed from his heart.

This approach proved extremely effective, and he made quick progress. He cleared stage after stage of the puzzle box, and it wasn’t long before he reached the peak of rune carving.

The next stage was the stage of emotions. Cha Ming now incorporated emotions into his paintings out of habit, so this was no challenge at all. He quickly blew past the various stages, and soon, he blew past the peak of rune gathering and entered the realm of law stitching paintings.

Law stitching paintings weren’t very different from law stitching talismans, Cha Ming discovered. And paintings weren’t very different from stories either. Paintings revolved around just like stories did. These characters could be people, landscapes, and abstract concepts like joy or gluttony.

He soon blew past his original record and took his runework a step further. He continued in this way for several days until he suddenly stopped.

This time, it wasn’t a feeling of wrongness that stopped him, but a realization that something was missing. “Runes,” Cha Ming thought, shaking his head. “It’s always about runes.”

From then on, he began hiding runes into his paintings. The talismans didn’t revolve around these runes but used them to facilitate or intensify specific features. The primary rule was that the runes must never negatively affect the aesthetics of the paintings. Form was paramount. Beauty was everything.

He continued in this manner for several weeks within the Clear Sky World, until finally, he reached a bottleneck he couldn’t breach. His talismans arts had reached the peak of the law stitching realm. If one accounted for Dao Energy, the paintings he produced would be suitable for use against saint-level powerhouses.

“Then the next step… is to consolidate,” Cha Ming muttered. “Ninesky, didn’t you want to see something interesting?”

“What is it this time?” asked Ninesky, flying over from her perch on a painted mulberry tree. “Is it Krakens? Sirens? Or has the Inkwell Clan finally grown a brain after all this time?”

“It’s nothing like that,” Cha Ming said. “Only… a realization. Talismans are boring, Ninesky.”

“Yeah. They are,” agreed Ninesky. “Super boring.”

“So I decided I’m going to make them more fun,” Cha Ming said. He summoned his three main paintings, then used his Crumbling Canvas Domain to break them apart. He then rearranged the paintings while preserving their essence, but used Dao Energy to infuse them with runes, and the Truth of Self-Wrought Existence to elevate them.

In the end, Cha Ming was left with three paintings, each one half a size smaller than his hand. One was hot and cold, and the other vibrant with five colors and their permutations. A third was hungry and merciless and bore an uncanny likeness to Cha Ming. These Painted Talismans weren’t just produced by Cha Ming – they contained his heart and soul and shared his essence.

It didn’t come as a big surprise when they shot into Cha Ming’s inner world and appeared above his Clearmist pool. They joined a talisman he hadn’t used in a long time: the Dao Origins Talisman.

“Nice!” said Ninesky. “You just made three intrinsic Talismans!”

“I like to think of them as intrinsic paintings,” said Cha Ming. “They’re useful, but they take some time to recharge between uses. Not that I could ever make copies of them to begin with.” This was due to the limits of his emotions.

“… is that it?” Ninesky said. “Boring.”

Cha Ming coughed lightly. “I was actually planning on making a new painting. A new talisman. This one will involve kittens.”

“Kittens?” asked Ninesky. “Let’s do it! Luther, get your but over here!”

Luther was constantly being bullied by Ninesky, so he didn’t dare ignore her summons. “What is it this time, esteemed taskmaster?” said the cat. “I hope it’s not another tea party. If it is, just kill me now.”

“Don’t let her scare you, Luther,” Cha Ming said. “We’ll need Coral and Disaster for this as well.”

Luther’s expression brightened. “Is it war then? A crusade? A raid?” Coral and Disaster appeared beside their big brother and cocked their heads at Cha Ming.

“It’s actually a group painting session,” Cha Ming confessed. “But treat it like a battle. I think it’ll turn out better this way.”

Luther grinned mischievously. Lightning flew out of his body to create a ball of violet paint, which flew at Ninesky and stained her gray robes. “Sorry, little boss. Master’s orders. We wouldn’t want to let him down, would we?”

“If this is a painting, what’s the theme?” asked Ninesky. “Does it have a name?”

“We’ll call it Carnage,” said Cha Ming. “And I have great expectations for how it will turn out.”