Book 18 - Chapter 1: Changes

Three shorter chapters this week. Enjoy ^^.

--

A gaping hole stood where the Tree of Life of Verdant Crossroads once had. The land bore telltale signs of spatial fracture, and the sandy soil, not unusual in such a place, was too perfect, and its sparse vegetation too even.

Given the amount of demiplane fragments Cha Ming had dismantled and reassembled, he’d be a fool to not spot what was going on. Of course, the circular boundary where one type of soil ended, and another began, all but confirmed it.

“What happened here?” muttered Cha Ming as he processed this new reality. This place was a replica, and a poorly done one at that. A patch of land exactly fifty kilometers in diameter had been taken away, and the fabric of reality stitched over this poor replacement.

This wasn’t the only thing that worried Cha Ming. The Inkwell Plane’s laws, which should have felt familiar to him, were now aliens and strange. If not his many karmic ties and a tingling in his blood, he would have thought he was in a different place.

This is the Inkwell Plane, Cha Ming confirmed as he harmonized with the local laws and began drawing in vast quantities of a familiar, inky energy. It’s just different, that’s all. And everyone I cared about has gone missing.

Cha Ming knew form experience that getting worked up over such things wouldn’t help anyone, so he focused on what mattered most in dangerous situations: safety. The best way to ensure his safety was improving his strength.

The first thing he did was improve a divine ability he’d acquired in the Heartforge Realm, Inkwell War Plate. Its base was inky, and he’d never had enough to truly nurture the divine ability.

His body greedily drank in inky energy from the atmosphere to solidify a set of phantom armor Cha Ming wore over his battle robes. The number of times he could use Inkwell War Plate’s invulnerability increased. One second and one tenth… one second and two tenths… According to his calculations, the armor would completely solidify in a short while and provide him with three seconds of near invulnerability.

The next thing he did was harmonize his inner world with the Inkwell Plane and reconcile his Dao Projection with the plane’s original laws. By using his influence over local laws, he was able to both verify that this patch of land had indeed gone missing, and that this event had occurred two decades ago.

He did not know where to inhabitants were. He did not know if Clever Dusk, Drezil, and Graceful Twilight were still alive, or where his teacher, the Monkey King, had gone to.

“Returning home was supposed to be a joyful event,” muttered Cha Ming. “I should really stop all this wishful thinking.” Trouble always followed him around.

Even so, he did not give up hope. Verdant Crossroads might be gone, but perhaps it had merely migrated? “Master?” Cha Ming called out. “Master Sun?” he repeated, this time louder. He spoke through his Dao Projection in a voice that rippled in the nearest 500 kilometers of inky reality.

His senses didn’t just travel through air but cut through stone and earth and sand. It cut through the planar boundary and echoed through the nearby void.

Yet there was no reply. Verdant Crossroads had vanished, and so had his master, Sun Wukong. And he had no idea where to begin looking for them.

Cha Ming still had one final trick left. He adjusted his eyesight and focused on the tiny karmic threads that connected him to other people. To his surprise, billions of connections appeared before his eyes. It seemed like he was connected to every individual on the Inkwell Plane.

What in the… he immediately realized what was going on. These were threads of cause and effect connecting him to the Painted Daoists, Demons, and Demigods of the Inkwell Plane. Many more individuals than he could have ever hoped for had embarked on the painted path, and many thousands more joined it every passing minute.

That is explains why my compatibility with the Inkwell Plane’s laws is so high, and why it didn’t take me long at all to adjust to a new reality, thought Cha Ming. Yet it wasn’t all good – he could feel a faint sense of rejection stemming from the Dao Origins of the plane. This world both welcomed him and wanted him gone.

Since there was nothing to be gleaned in Verdant Crossroads, Cha Ming took a Clear Rune Step and appeared just outside Desert’s Blessing. The once-lovely desert outpost was much changed and had grown to ten times its original side. At the center of the city lay a lake that collected inky water and distributed it to the surrounding farms via aqueducts. Fertile farmland could be seen a hundred kilometers in every direction.

Huxian? Cha Ming finally called out.

What’s going on? Huxian replied.

Verdant Crossroads is missing, and so is Sun Wukong, said Cha Ming. They’re not in Desert’s Blessing. He took another Clear Rune Step and appeared in Titanvale. They’re not in Titanvale ether. One last step took him back to the circular cut-out where the Tree of Life had once been.

I just asked Miyue, Huxian responded a short while later.Verdant Crossroads vanished two decades ago, almost overnight, without communicating anything even to their closest allies. Rumor has it that the Church of Jezeriah and Harid Dej collaborated to make it happen, but no one knows for sure.

Can you confirm this? asked Cha Ming.

My information network is very lacking here, Cha Ming, said Huxian. I’m lucky I got this much detail from Miyue. She’s an excellent manager but doesn’t do to well in the spying and information department.

All right said Cha Ming. I’ll go see a specialist, I guess. Can you tell me anything about the communication problems I’m having? I can’t contact Wei Longshen or Petros.

I don’t know about Petros, since he should be in Mendin, but I know why you can’t get a hold of Wei Longshen, said Huxian. It has to do with the separation of the five major continents on a spatial level. There’s no direct link between the continents anymore; anyone who does travel between them does so by void-faring ship.

It was too much for Cha Ming to take in. He’d seen extensive planar damage on the Chasewind Plane, but even then, a chunk had directly blown off.

He took another Clear Rune Step and appeared in Fierra. Eighty-one incarnations spread out to different points in the city to dig out information.

I’ve got a bit more news, Cha Ming said to Huxian. Something happened between the Inkwell Clan and the Paper Tiger Clan. The Inkwell Clan suddenly came back to the Inkwell Plane, they were both crazy and crazy strong. They fought with the Paper Tiger Clan, so the paper tiger clan collapsed key ley lines and partially severed the Central Inkwell Sea from the four other subcontinents.

Holy crap said Huxian. Do you want a job? It was like pulling teeth getting all that information out here.

I don’t think I’ll be able to gather more than basic information, said Cha Ming. He’d been hoping to find news about Sun Wukong and his friends, but had discovered nothing about them, not even an inkling.

How is the Inkwell Plane still holding together? thought Cha Ming. According to what he knew, the plane should be incredibly unstable because of this, and its natural laws should be degrading – which they weren’t.

Moreover, planar damage was usually accompanied by fiends. The most severe the damage, the more fiends would pop through the cracks. Except there were no cracks, and no one he talked to seem to know what fiends were.

He brought this up to Huxian, but the fox soon lost interest. Maybe there’s something happening we don’t know about, said Huxian. Maybe there’s something big going on. But my friends have been fighting for the past sixty years, and I have to prioritize that. Fox out.

Since there was nothing else to be gained in Fierra, Cha Ming one last step to appear before a newly refurbished church of Jezeriah. It was from that same church that Yu Wen had stolen Jezeriah’s sacred artifact, resulting in Artemis being sent down to slay her.

He was about to leave the city once and for all when felt a sudden warping in the planar laws. Six gateways appeared in the range of his senses. Cha Ming could have run, but chose not to, and rose into the sky to meet these new arrivals.

“Daoist Clear Sky,” greeted a familiar voice. It was a priestess wearing black and crimson robes who spoke. “How time flies – it’s like you’ve forgotten that we’re enemies. I can’t think of any other reason you’d so blatantly show your face in my territory.”

“I had my heart set on a little sight-seeing, High Priestess Undine,” Cha Ming said. “I hope you don’t mind my intrusion.”

“It’s Cardinal Undine,” Undine corrected. “And yes, I do mind.”

“Then it seems it’s your memory that has problems,” said Cha Ming. “Because last time we met, you barely escaped death. An alliance between both churches is unlikely to change that this time around.”

He turned his gaze to another man with robes just as ornate as Undine’s, but white with gold trim. The man had vibrant red hair that flowed with the wind and carried a spear made of solidified flames. “And who might you be?” he asked the new arrival. “No wait, I can hear the gold rankers talking about you. Cardinal Salamani, I presume?”

“Jezeriah’s Chosen, Salamani Firebringer, in the flesh,” said the man. “We haven’t met in person, but your reputation precedes you. There are so many stories out there about you – which is exactly why we anticipated you might come to Fierra. You’ll notice the nearest five thousand kilometers of space reinforcing itself right about… now.”

Salamani took his spear in one hand and summoned a white book with the other. It flew open, revealing pages of holy scriptures. A searing ray of sunlight shot out towards Cha Ming before he could even react. It smashed through his Dao projection and divine shell as though they didn’t exist and filled Cha Ming’s body with law runes and foreign divinity. His body didn’t even try to reject it.

“This blessing isn’t yours, but borrowed,” Cha Ming said. “You can send my thanks to your pope. I realize this forcefully consolidates my incarnations, but is increasing my combat prowess a wise decision?” The many incarnations he’d sent inside the city to gather news shivered as golden threads pulled them back into his main body. It was the same for the incarnation he kept inside the Clear Sky World.

“We’re helpless to do otherwise,” said Salamani. “Cardinal Undine tells me you’re very resistant to most spells. Moreover… don’t underestimate me because of my cultivation realm.”

Cha Ming suddenly felt a tingling at the back of his head. He raised the Clear Sky Brush and deflected a spear before it could pierce through his head. He then painted an arc of bloodstorm energy that shattered eight other spear projection, foiling Salamani’s surprise attack, then used Bloodstorm Rush to evacuate the area to avoid a phantom spear of golden light descending from the heavens.

He’s a late gold ranker, but he’s strong, like Undine or Oster,thought Cha Ming. It’s a good thing he didn’t go to the Heartforge Realm. Otherwise, I’d be no match for him.

“Aren’t your friends going to help you?” Cha Ming asked Salamani.

“There’s no need,” said Salamani. “They are needed elsewhere.”

Each of the other four were middle gold rank archbishops. They’d each assumed a corner of their battlefield and were reinforcing the spatial blockade. It was therefore only Undine he had to worry about in addition to this mysterious war priest.

“I just returned from the Heartforge Realm and was itching for a challenge,” said Cha Ming. “Let’s hope you’re half as competent as Undine.”

“You should know better than to give me build up time, Clear Sky,” said Undine. “Astral Summoning: Fallen Seraph!” A gateway of starlight appeared and forged a connection with a distant realm. Two clawed hands pierced through the spatial blockade and proceeded to drag its body into the Inkwell Plane.

Fighting three opponents would be difficult, so Cha Ming poured Dao Energy into the Clear Sky Brush and began to paint. He poured both the essence of the Claw Vice Demiplane and the Flamewing Demiplane into this new creation, the dreaded demon, Dragneel.

“Keep the angel busy,” he instructed his painting before turning back to Undine and Salamani. “Likewise, you should know better than to let me paint. Moreover, your location was poorly thought out.” He rose his foot and stomped it down. “Shatter!”

Every window and every pane of glass in the city broke. Military personnel and civilians alike screamed as they shielded their eyes and faces against the rain of glass. Yet to their surprise, the dagger-like shards never came. Cha Ming used them to paint a sword and shield for Dragneel, then charge towards Undine.

“Archbishop Wexler – shields!” called Cardinal Salamani.

“Right away!” said a portly Archbishop. A shield of light emerged just in time to protect the city from the colossal aftershocks resulting from the fallen seraph and Dragneel’ s battle.

As for Cha Ming, he never reached Undine, because Salamani blocked the way. His spear was sharp, and his spearmanship top-notch. Cha Ming was forced to retreat, granting Undine precious time to chant another spell.

“From the Unholy Realms I summon thee, Guardians of Pain and Woe!” chanted Undine. Two horned angels appeared, one bearing a green blade, and the other a black one. Unlike the fallen seraph, they did not attack him physically, but with powers of curse and doom.

A sword cut through the air and struck Cha Ming in the chest. Most of the blow was diffused by his Inkwell War Plate and his divine shell, but a thin line remained. As for the second blade, it left a black scorch-mark on his soul that began to expand aggressively.

Cha Ming used his Crown of the Starry Sky and All-Heaven’s Eyes to decipher the law marks each curse left on his body. Any injuries he suffered would naturally aggravate, and pain would be enhanced a hundred-fold.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem; Cha Ming seemed to be in perfect shape. But when he sensed the three cracks on the Sky Propping Pillar supporting the temple ion his inner world, he knew he was in trouble.

The second curse summoned dark clouds of misfortune. A storm of tribulation lightning appeared above the city of Fierra. Fortunately, Cha Ming could deal with this one - he manipulated his karma and the curse’s karma to isolate it, and the clouds dispersed as though they’d never existed.

“Is that all?” Cha Ming asked the duo, who were not yet aware of his worsening condition. “I think it’s about time I had a turn.” He painted a horizontal arc with the Clear Sky Brush, summoning a tide of bloodstorm energy. Luther, Coral, and Disaster emerged from the sea of violence.

“You called, Master?” said Luther.

“Those four bishops protecting the city,” Cha Ming said. “I want them gone. I want them to know the consequences of ambushing me.”

“As you command, master,” said Luther. The tide of bloodstorm energy split and transformed into four separate armies of fluffy bloodstorm kittens.

“In the name of Jezeriah, I exorcise you!” said one of the archbishops.

“Begone, summoned being!” said another archbishop.

A wave of golden energy washed over the bloodstorm trio, but they cackled madly and swallowed that energy. “Oooh, it thinks we’re summoned beings,” said a gray sprite, joining the trio. “Kittens, attack!” This sprite was none other than Ninesky, the spirit of the Clear Sky Brush.

“Bloodstorm Legion: Advance!” commanded Luther. Thousands of bloodstorm kittens pounced onto the priests, forcing them to summon shields of faith energy to fight them off.

“I don’t think the city’s shields will last very long,” said Cha Ming. “You’d better protect them instead of worrying about little old me. Undying of Flamewing! Deathless of Claw Vice! Come forth!”

Paintings spilled forth from two gateways in his inner world. There were hundreds of them, and each one had reached rank 11, the equivalent of an initial gold rank cultivator.

They attacked the failing shield, giving the city’s gold rankers no choice but to rise up to prevent their buildings form crumbling. The silver rankers remained below to protect the city’s bronze rankers.

“You dare call yourself an angel when you use such despicable tactics?” shouted Salamani. “I call upon Jezeriah’s holy shield!” He pulled a medallion from his robes and tossed it towards the city. It grew ten thousand-fold and formed a golden wall that interposed itself between Cha Ming’s paintings and the desperate gold rankers.

“You idiot!” shouted Undine. “He’d never harm civilians!” It was true, to some extent, but likewise, Cha Ming knew that a man with Salamani’s personality wouldn’t be able to take her word for it. Not given the difference in their ideologies.

Cha Ming used the opening to paint a circle of blank ink. A hole appeared in the spatial blockade as a piece of it ceased to exist. He took a step and was about to leave the area when a surge of spatial energy shot out from Undine and closed up the doorway.

“Wretch!” said Salamani as he shot towards Cha Ming, spear in hand. The laws of piercing, light, and judgement imbued inside this spear forced Cha Ming to respond, and once again, he was on the back foot.

“Undine is right,” said Cha Ming. “I would never hurt the innocent. But tell me, Salamani – how innocent are those warriors down there? I’m sure they’ve done plenty of evil deeds.”

“Don’t you dare – “Salamani started. He attacked Cha Ming, but the latter received his attack head on to execute Bloodstorm Rush and appear several thousand meters away. A single swipe of Cha Ming’s brush was all it took to end a gold rankers’ life. Then a second later, Cha Ming appeared behind an archer and painted puppet strings on the individual. The archer began shooting down gold rankers belonging to his own team.

Luther and his two accomplices took Cha Ming’s cue and broke away from the priests in favor of fighting lesser rankers. One by one, they fell from the sky.

“Coward!” shouted Salamani. “Do you dare face me in single combat?” He flew towards Cha Ming, but was unable to catch him before he felled another weaker gold ranker.

“You’re the coward,” said Cha Ming. “You trapped me in a city to use it against me. You’re using your own people to lock me down. Have you no shame?” His words caused a seed of doubt to appear in Salamani’s heart, and that seed rapidly caused fire as he realized that Cha Ming was right. He was being villainous.

Cha Ming took advantage of his distracted state to attack Undine, who was busy tearing apart his painted army. He threw out the Clear Sky Brush and had it transform into a large Yin-Yang Sprit Threading Needle. The needle pierced through her hastily summoned shield and plunged into her shoulder.

“You might want to get that looked at,” Cha Ming cackled as necrosis began setting into the wound. He pulled back Luther, Coral, Disaster, and Ninesky onto a small ship. Twenty-three bloodstorm wings lip up on the vessel as it shot off into the distance.

“Stop him!” Undine cried out, but Salamani did not listen. Cha Ming’s paintings had already begun to dive-bomb the city’s shields. There were just enough paintings that if Salamani didn’t intervene directly, the city below them would suffer untold amounts of damage.

“Release the spatial blockade and I’ll take back my paintings,” Cha Ming called out to Salamani. “You have my word!”

“He won’t follow through with his threat, Salamani,” Undine urged as she forced out yin energy from the wound on her shoulder. “Just keep defending. We almost have him!” But Salamani was on the brink, and Cha Ming’s Heartforge Spirit Flames was eroding at his will. Could he really take the risk? Wouldn’t it be better to let Cha Ming go?

“Damn it!” shouted Salami. “Fine! End the blockade!” He took out an authority medallion and broke it. Cha Ming felt the spatial lock over Fierra fade.

“Thank you kindly, Salamani,” Cha Ming said. And true to his words, he took back his paintings. But not before summoning five illusory pillars above each cathedral in the city.

“Clear Sky, I did as you asked!” shouted Salamani.

“And I did as I said I would,” said Cha Ming. “But you should pay a price for what you did.” He pointed downward and imbued the pillars with his Crumbling Canvas Domain, which combined the laws of Bound Energy and Shattered Form. The steel and glass in the cathedrals shattered, as did all the energy sources inside.

“It was a pleasure, Undine,” said Cha Ming. “Have fun picking up the pieces.” He then took a step and appeared in a clearing several hundred thousand of kilometers away. He transformed into an initial gold-ranked monk with rotten teeth and his fair share of bloody karma, then entered a nearby city to recover.