PtM Book 17 - Chapter 51: The Making of Deities

3 chapters again this week.

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Wei Longshen could think of better ways to spend his time than hiding behind large pieces of spatial debris to avoid heavy fire from fiendish artilleries. Ideally, these other things would involve music, and either tea or wine. Better company as well.

Petros wasn’t a terrible fighting companion, but his words were abrasive, clipped, and straight to the point. His combat style was similar, as every arrow he shot took one or move lives without exception.

“How’s your stockpile of arrows keeping up?” asked Wei Longshen. “Will you be able to last the battle?”

“I’m almost out,” Petros said cheerfully. Yet he did not stop drawing the special glass arrows from his quiver and maintained a steady firing rate of three arrows per second. “Can you echolocate again?”

Wei Longshen sighed and put his flute to his lips to let out a few high-pitched sounds. My talents are wasted here, he thought.

Petros’s ear twitched as he heard these nigh-invisible sound waves, and immediately loosed three arrows. Two rank-thirteen fiends and a squad of rank-five fiends had almost made it to their position. Petros’s arrows curved as they hugged the mountain, then exploded in their faces. Like those before them, they had no way to break past his kill zone.

“I’m not going to lie, Petros, I feel somewhat underutilized,” Wei Longshen said.

“Oh?” Petros asked, nocking another arrow. “How?”

“Wouldn’t you feel a little miffed if you were reduced from a fearsome general to the equivalent of a map generator?” Wei Longshen asked. “I have no ghosts to command, and it’s impractical to fight our enemies face-to-face. I can only hide here with you and hope that some of these fiends sneak past your ridiculously overpowered shots so I can take a few of them out myself.”

“If that’s what you want me to do, I can always—”

“No, I wasn’t being serious,” Wei Longshen said. “Keep up the good work, Petros. I have a feeling my strength will be needed shortly.” His words proved prophetic.

It wasn’t just them defending the largest piece of planar debris in the area. Two of Cao Wenluan’s minions, Soul Eater and Autumn’s Call, were as well.

These two cultivators were some of the most powerful Wei Longshen had ever fought. Autumn’s Call’s strange powers and control over time were downright frightening. As for Soul Eater, he demolished fiends by pulling their artificial souls right out of their bodies and consuming them.

“That can’t be healthy,” Petros finally said, breaking his silence. “All those dirty fiendish souls?”

“Are you… are you making conversation with me?” Wei Longshen asked.

“Only because I’m waiting on a batch of arrows,” Petros said. “I’m out.”

“And how do you expect to receive a batch of arrows?” asked Wei Longshen. “Are they just going to appear out of… right. Clear Sky.” Streams of materials and energy made their way to Petros via Cha Ming’s Crumbling Canvas, which now encapsulated the entire battlefield. These materials, which included meteoric iron and several other rare raw energy sources, came together to create perfect arrows, complete with runework.

There were a thousand arrows in total. Petros swept them up into his quiver and began firing again. They were heavier than before and contained enough explosive power to take down fortified positions.

The sudden change in Petros’s abilities shook up the fiendish defensive lines, attracting even more of them toward their position.

“I’ve decided that I hate Oster,” Wei Longshen said.

“Everyone hates Oster,” said Petros. “Even his allies.”

“That duo should be out there taking out all these fiends for us in close combat,” Wei Longshen continued. “Instead, we’re holding on by the skin of our teeth because they’re drawing them toward us.”

“Truth be told, this is the part I like about Oster,” Petros said. “He’s predictable and self-interested. It makes him easier to deal with.” He let loose another volley, this time exploding a ridge hiding a few lurker-class fiends. An entire nest of fiends had taken up residence there; with the disappearance of the ridge, they could only scatter as Petros picked them off. “Besides, isn’t this ideal? We’re stalling, and as long as I do just well enough to make it look like I’m folding under pressure, you won’t have to expose the spirits you have left. Or any of your techniques. By the way, were you going to answer my question?”

“What question?” Wei Longshen asked.

“About the fiendish souls,” Petros said.

“Ah, right,” Wei Longshen said. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised that he’s able to devour fiendish souls like that.”

“Could you do the same?” asked Petros. “In a pinch?”

“Heavens no!” Wei Longshen said. “In theory, assuming the spirits I command willingly wanted to be devoured, I could do it. Otherwise, I’d receive extreme backlash from my cultivation method. I’m a righteous reaper of souls, a shepherd of death, not a horror from beyond looking to crush souls into nourishment to climb my way up the food chain.

“Long story short, I think there are serious side effects to consuming souls like he is. It’s making him stronger, sure, but it’s also destabilizing him.” Which was why Wei Longshen had been doing more than just talking this entire time. He’d also been humming. Unbeknownst to everyone, even his allies, he was tainting and reprograming these artificial souls to increase his affinity with them. Soul Eater would be in for a nasty surprise when they finally began fighting.

“You should get ready, Longshen,” Petros said. “I sense another push on our position.” Like puppets under the control of a master puppeteer, the fiendish army suddenly changed its movement pattern and pushed up toward their position.

Petros’s law projection pushed back against the dark curtain of fiendish energy that accompanied them. Arrows flew out at random enemies at a much faster rate than normal.

Unfortunately, this technique left them open to more advanced enemy tactics. The fiends broke through and made their way toward them. Autumn’s Call and Soul Eater were naturally a half step behind, which meant that they would need to reveal some cards to get through this.

The question is, how many cards do I show? Wei Longshen thought. He rose into the air and began playing. A puppeteer’s melody filled the nearest five hundred meters. All fiends in range fell under his control and began attacking their companions.

With an army of fiends protecting him, Petros was able to dominate the battlefield. Any fiends that managed to evade his deadly attacks were sniped off by sonic attacks, courtesy of Wei Longshen, on their artificial souls, which disintegrated into raw but useless spiritual energy that could no longer be harvested by Soul Eater.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Soul Eater. The meathead of a cultivator, realizing that his free meals were at risk, jumped into battle. Autumn’s Call could only follow.

“Autumn’s Call, Soul Eater, hold position,” Oster communicated, but to no avail.

Winds of time swept through the battlefield, crumbling fiendish bodies freeing their trapped souls, which, thanks to Wei Longshen’s melody, exploded before they could be devoured. Soul Eater could only force his way deeper into the battlefield and attract them into his body before Wei Longshen could get at them.

“It appears that Oster isn’t the only predictable one,” Petros said. “How did you know he would charge in?”

Wei Longshen shrugged. “Cao Wenluan didn’t hide Soul Eater just because he’s evil. His entire team is filled with terrible people. Autumn’s Call was kept secret for obvious reasons, but Soul Eater? It doesn’t make sense.”

“But how did you connect that to his obvious idiocy?” asked Petros.

“The fact that he rarely ever speaks, and the fact that he doesn’t move without commands from Autumn’s Call,” said Wei Longshen. “I wasn’t wasting my time these past few days. I noticed that every time those two work together to kill fiends, Soul Eater is a step behind.”

“That’s still quite the conclusion to draw from so few facts,” Petros said.

“Yet the facts speak clearly,” Wei Longshen said with a satisfied grin. “I’ve just confirmed that Soul Eater has the mentality of a five-year-old. He’s also powerful enough that stopping him when he’s distracted is very difficult.”

Soul Eater was busy gorging himself on loose souls freshly freed from the fiends in the area.

“Good plan,” said Petros.

“What plan?” asked Wei Longshen.

“Whatever plan relies on him gorging himself on souls,” said Petros.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Wei Longshen.

“Clear Sky, do you have more arrows for me?” said Petros. “I’m fresh out.” In moments, a fresh batch of quality arrows appeared. Another batch, a secret batch, was delivered directly into his storage treasure.

***

Cha Ming devoured ninety percent of the largest planar fragment before calling it quits. Only a glassy shell of solidified spatial energy remained, along with enough matter and energy that a casual look wouldn’t identify its deficiencies.

It wasn’t enough to stabilize his condition, but he’d regained most of his combat prowess. It was time to accelerate the plan.

Eight-ninths of Cha Ming’s body were concentrated in a single incarnation, with only a ninth parading in the outside world and supporting Martin, Undine, Wu, and Violet Rose. To his knowledge, Oster and the others were completely fooled.

Cha Ming split up his main incarnation into three, then used Clear Rune Step to infiltrate three more planar fragments. They repeated the process until each incarnation only contained one-ninth of his original strength.

Ninesky was a part of Cha Ming, and as such, could split into as many sub-treasures as she wished. A total of eight Star Void Cauldrons appeared, each with their own Heartforge Spirit Flame. Planar materials were ripped up from inside these fragments and poured into the Clear Sky World at an accelerated rate.

By now, the mortal worlds in Cha Ming’s inner universe had fully recovered. This new wave of energy birthed several more, as a larger base was required to prop up his transcendent demiplanes.

His inner universe, much like the current universe, was built like a pyramid. The mortal planes at the bottom served as a catch-basin for energies that broke off from transcendent planes. Energies were reconcentrated in these planes until they moved up and back into the transcendent worlds, replenishing their energy.

Originally, Cha Ming had assumed that planes could only exist in three levels. The temple in his inner world had forced him to revise his assumption. Already, many mortal planes in his inner world straddled the line between mortality and transcendence. Many had already taken a half step into transcendence, and hundreds more were pushing up to that level.

Such a dramatic shift caused lesser creatures like plants, nonsentient insects, animals, and elementals to evolve. Many of them broke through their plane’s limit and underwent tribulation.

Many of these beings perished. A few survived the process, and as such, were allowed to ascend to a suitable demiplane. As for those who perished, their energies were still fully transcendent; they were absorbed by the demiplanes and reinforced their foundations.

This development further transformed the Flamewing and Claw Vice Demiplane and strengthened their bond with the mortal worlds. The embryonic demiplanes also saw changes; many plant life-forms ascended to Jade Moon Garden, shoring up its shaky foundations.

The two demiplanes and embryonic demiplanes saw an increase in their overall quality. This naturally led to the rejection of lesser materials, which fell onto the mortal realms, creating additional new worlds. Some of these fragments were even taken up by existing mortal planes. To mortals, they were supreme treasures, and served as the source of several breakthroughs, completing the feedback loop.

Unfortunately, these worlds were not yet full planes. Only lesser life-forms and inanimate objects could transcend. Humans and demons and greater elementals were still trapped at the peak of mortality and would inevitably perish should they try to breach this final step.

Cha Ming’s intuition told him that it would be impossible for these beings to break through until Cha Ming’s demiplanes fully completed their transformations. His goal was to develop them into five fully transcendent planes.

But that was a task for later. Each shift and transformation brought the two demiplanes a step closer to full transcendence. At the same time, it brought his inner world a step closer to destruction.

This was not because the Clear Sky World was growing unstable. Far from it. It was just that the increase in the Clear Sky World’s power meant an increase in the strength of its laws. An increase in the strength of its laws subsequently resulted in an elevation and solidification of the incomplete heavenly temple weighing down on the Sky-Propping Pillar.

Was there truly no way to resolve this problem? If strengthening his foundation didn’t work, what else could he attempt? He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing in this world; without it, it would never be completely stable.

Having split into eight parts, Cha Ming was able to accumulate planar materials far more quickly than before. And having regained control over most of his cultivation, Cha Ming was able to refine more of these materials into higher-quality ones. Most of these, he fed into the growing demiplanes and landmasses, but those aligned with wind, blood, and lightning, he fed to the three growing elementals.

Eventually, they reached a bottleneck in their cultivations, which was quickly followed by a cracking sound. Cha Ming was overjoyed to hear these sounds, for it meant that his elementals had succeeded. Luther, Coral, and Disaster had completed their evolution and become rank-fourteen elementals!

There was a huge difference in power between rank thirteen and fourteen. It was the same between middle law stitching and late law stitching. It was often said that it would take ten cultivators to overpower a cultivator of a higher rank. At higher levels, however, the difference was more pronounced. Ten cultivators and limit-breaking abilities might not be enough to close the gap.

Luther had once been a rank-fifteen elemental that had taken a half step into immortality. Following his imprisonment in the Puppet Lightning Sect and the deterioration of the Chasewind Plane’s laws, he’d been forced down to rank thirteen. And in attempting to possess Cha Ming’s body, he’d further reduced his power to rank twelve, the maximum that his body and cultivation could tolerate at the time.

It had always been Luther’s dream to recover his power and ascend to the immortal realms, and now, he was able to take that first step. It was impossible to reach rank fourteen on the Chasewind Plane, but within Cha Ming’s inner universe, the possibilities were endless.

On the Chasewind Plane, their breakthrough would have provoked a tribulation, but here, there was no such thing. They completed their breakthrough smoothly and effortlessly. And with these breakthroughs came a surging of natural energy from the universe, which they used to reinforce not only their energy bodies, but also the spherical cores Cha Ming had constructed for them.

These cores were not ordinary energy cores or law cores—they were a simplification of world cores. By taking advantage of their breakthrough, Luther, Coral, and Disaster were able to deepen their connection with the laws of lightning, blood, and wind, further adding to the Dao fragments inscribed on these cores and completing them.

Originally, Cha Ming’s plan was to give them a home and a steady source of energy, but to his surprise, his plan worked far better than he’d imagined. The cores devoured all high-quality planar materials Cha Ming had on hand and became what appeared to be legitimate yet tiny world cores.

As the controller of the Clear Sky World, Cha Ming was able to identity that these cores were still in an energy- and material-deficient state, so he gathered as many lower-quality materials and energy sources as he could and fed them to the cores, which started frosting over with these materials in a familiar pattern.

The cores were already ten times larger than Cha Ming’s original construction. On their own, they were useless, but under the control of the three elementals, they generated impressive law fields given their size.

“So that’s what I’m missing,” Cha Ming muttered as he saw the laws in his inner universe realigning. Three new laws had come into existence—one of wind, one of lightning, and one of blood.

The bloodstorm trio had already ravaged the Clear Sky World with small storms, but these storms were uncontrolled and sporadic. The appearance of these three moons added structure to these storms, including limits and minimum and maximum frequency.

There were consequences to the appearance of these three moons, the first being a large increase in the stability of the Clear Sky World. Their presence alone was enough to reinforce the Sky-Propping Pillar, sealing up many of the lesser cracks on its surface and all but three major cracks, which still ran across the pillar’s bronze surface. The cracks in the Clear Sky World’s Divine Shell remained, but Cha Ming could sense two forces actively healing them.

The storms were one such force. By ravaging Cha Ming’s demiplanes and refining their energies, they strengthened the demiplanes over time. Normally, this would take decades, if not centuries, but Cha Ming had an advantage that most demigods did not—he was an angelic cultivator with a rare spiritual ability: World Phoenix Rising!

All three of Cha Ming’s natures were fused, which meant that all imperfections in his foundation would be healed, within reason. It was only thanks to this constant healing that he’d survived so far. Now that his inner world was reasonably stable, it accelerated the transformation of his three demiplanes such that they could resist the constant bloodstorms.

Cha Ming heaved out a sigh of relief. “In the end, I only accidentally succeeded. All I wanted to do was make you three homes. To think that they would become three moons.”

“Master…” Luther said, appearing before him with Coral and Disaster. “It appears that there are side effects.”

Cha Ming nodded. “I’m sorry, Luther, I didn’t realize this would trap you.” His intent had been to build a home for them, but in the end, they’d become prisons. These moons anchored them to the Clear Sky World. Even if they returned to the Inkwell Plane, they wouldn’t be able to leave him. At best, they would be able to send out avatars to interact with the outside world.

Luther yawned loudly. “Actually, it’s not so bad. We have obligations to fulfill, and our mobility is restricted, but in return, we have a place to stay, and a place to play. Unless you specifically forbid it, we’re basically deities here.”

Coral and Disaster seemed share that sentiment. After all, they were still young and innocent. Being summoned to fight was well and good, but what they wanted was a world to explore. The Clear Sky World, being a growing world, was a place with endless possibilities.

“I’ll try to find a way to grant you your freedom,” Cha Ming said to Luther. “It’s my fault. I trapped you to punish you a little for trying to possess me, but it was never my intention to keep you forever.”

Luther flicked his tail and turned around. “Don’t bother. I like it here. I’m staying.”

Cha Ming’s eye twitched. “Are you saying that this is your house, and you’re moving in?”

“That’s right,” Luther said. “I’m a cat. It’s what I do. What are you going to do about it?”

A smile tugged at the corner of Cha Ming’s mouth. “Be careful what you wish for.”

Luther froze mid-step and turned around to look at Cha Ming. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, nothing,” Cha Ming said, grinning impishly. “It’s just that you’re not the first one to move in. There’s another deity in this world, and she’s a troublemaker. She’s also got a thing for cats.”

Ninesky was connected to Cha Ming on an intrinsic level. She not only sensed his intentions, but also saw three new friends that couldn’t escape her even if they wanted to. “Oooh, kittens!” she said. “I love kittens. We’re going to have so much fun together!”

“Clear Sky…” Luther said to Cha Ming.

But Cha Ming tuned him out. “I’m pretty busy now, Luther,” Cha Ming said. “Enjoy lording over all the lesser beings.”

“Clear Sky, don’t you dare leave like this! Explain!” Luther said, but Cha Ming ignored his protests and turned his attention back to his eight incarnations.

Currently, all eight of them were absorbing planar fragments with reckless abandon. They did not concern themselves with the stability of the fragments, since there was no longer any way to mask the sudden spike in his energy levels. His energy-deficient state had been completely resolved, and all he had to do now was shore up a slight material deficiency.

Likely, Cao Wenluan and the others would realize the threat he posed and execute whatever plan they had. He only hoped that his own companions had properly prepared for the inevitable battle between right and wrong, jade and ochre.

Cha Ming had gained a lot during his breakthrough. The Shattered Form Canvas was a nice addition to his Crumbling Canvas, as it could be used to spontaneously create and reinforce his creations in battle. It would constantly wear down on all matter, which, in addition to passively eroding enemy defenses, was extremely difficult to defend against.

The Sky-Propping Pillar was a second unexpected gain. As an upgraded incarnation of Ninesky, it would naturally be much stronger than the Clear Sky Staff when used in battle.

A third interesting gain was the spontaneous generation of a divine ability. Its name was Bloodstorm Invocation, and it connected him with the three moon deities in his inner world, Luther, Coral, and Disaster. Not only could he use this bloodstorm energy to paint with Bloodstorm Style, he could also use it to execute his other bloodstorm techniques like Bloodstorm Rush, Bloodstorm Crush, and Bloodstorm Execution without reservation or limitations.

This also marked the creation of Cha Ming’s eighth divine ability. Five slots were already occupied by divine abilities granted by the Five Point Monarch. The sixth was occupied by his Primal Chaos True Body. The seventh was taken up by the Clear Sky Brush and its many incarnations, leaving only his last slot remaining.

This, he discovered, was the true reason the Clear Sky World had stabilized. He had gained a divine ability, further concentrating his power. He wasn’t sure whether the physical manifestation of the divine ability in the Clear Sky World was important, but he felt he was on the right track. There was hope for stabilizing his inner world if he pursued divine abilities to their limit.

But that was an issue for another time. For now, he needed to help his friends survive the fiendish assault. More importantly, he needed to defend them against their fellow defenders. Now that he’d fully broken through, they were in much greater danger than they’d imagined.