PtM Book 17 - Chapter 48: Clash of Wills

1/3 chapters this week ^^.

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Dao fragments formed the core of every plane. This included mortal, transcendent, and even immortal planes. Not only did they set the rules for each plane, they also set their tone and their nature. It was impossible for two planes to have identical Dao origins.

When Cha Ming had first absorbed the Flamewing Demiplane, he’d felt elation. His life had been in danger, so he’d broken through to save it. He hadn’t noticed that moment where laws shifted and his nature transformed. But this time, he was wide awake as his mind opened up to countless possibilities.

The Flamewing Demiplane and the growing Claw Vice Demiplane functioned under different rules. He knew this on a theoretical level, but watching the world as it painted itself into existence was something else.

The peaceful integration he’d envisioned didn’t happen. Bound Energy and Shattered Form, despite sharing similar roots and both being Clearmist laws, repelled each other. The Clear Sky World became a war zone, and nothing, not even the growing Jade Moon Garden, could avoid this conflict.

The larger the Claw Vice Demiplane became, the more he understood why this was. Demiplanes, it turned out, produced law fields. Just like normal planes. Just like the greater universe. He’d never noticed this fact because the universe’s law field and a plane’s law field were tightly knit entities, and difficult to tell apart. But with a second law field added in proximity to a first, the laws were in flux and became easier to tell apart.

In essence, Cha Ming had forcefully taken away “territory” from the Flamewing Demiplane, which had thus far been in control of the Clear Sky World. A natural boundary would form once the process was finished.

Because of the conflict in laws, it became necessary for Cha Ming to rearrange his inventory of planar materials. He shifted the growing Jade Moon Garden, which was not yet a demiplane, beside the Claw Vice Demiplane to support it. Its support was reciprocated with rich earth-aligned energies and laws.

There weren’t many metal-based planar materials in the Clear Sky World, as the Chasewind Plane was lacking in these materials. But he shifted the ones he had connected next to the Claw Vice Demiplane and wedged it with water-based planar materials, which he then connected to Jade Moon Garden in a five-element formation.

These materials were not full planes, but they did contain law fragments, which allowed Cha Ming to somewhat balance out the conflicting law fields. This served to minimize the impact these clashing law fields were having on the mortal worlds beneath them.

The universe had a hierarchy. There were three layers of existence, namely immortal, transcendent, and mortal. Transcendent worlds were subsidiary to immortal worlds, and mortal worlds were subsidiary to transcendent worlds. As such, the mortal worlds in his universe had to comply with the overall law field in the Clear Sky World, which was in full flux.

Individual mortal worlds could not choose which laws to align to and had to balance all laws within their structure. As such, they needed to align themselves to both Bound Energy and Shattered Form.

Under the influence of the Flamewing Demiplane, the Clear Sky World and the mortal worlds beneath it had become more explosive and produced life in fits and bursts. Spirit stones and materials increased in density, and higher-grade materials became much easier to come by.

The Claw Vice Demiplane brought with it chaos and ruin. Countless cities were reduced to rubble overnight. What’s worse, large reservoirs of energy that had been accumulating for years were released all at once due to the shifting geology. Volcanic eruptions became commonplace, as did earthquakes, typhoons, and another geological phenomena.

Disaster came hand in hand with fortune. As the law of Shattered Form increased its influence, the strength of cultivators and other life-forms on each plane increased. Mountains rose up from the earth, bringing with them precious metals and ores and naturally occurring spirit stones.

The Flamewing Demiplane and the Claw Vice Demiplane were very different places. The Flamewing Demiplane was not a volcanic wasteland as one might expect, but a world teeming with life. Brood-type life-forms were most common, as were large clutches of eggs. Flamewing life-forms, both painted or otherwise, were the apex of power. The plane had vegetation, and its trees were very different than those in Jade Moon Garden. Strange plants with leaves of fire grew there, and it was not uncommon for plant life-forms to proliferate via spores and self-detonation.

The Claw Vice Demiplane was not yet fully formed, but Cha Ming could already see it in its mind’s eye. Because he wasn’t just passively bringing it into existence, but painting an altered version of the original world with its original planar materials.

He envisioned a shifting mass of tectonic plates, and rocklike plants, and creatures with shells. Lots and lots of shells. The creatures here would eat rocks and stones, and the demons and elementals it produced would be hardy and powerful. Crustaceans with pincers would be dominant.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Cha Ming was barely cognizant of the outside world and responded to questions as he could. Gradually, he gained access to the Flamewing Demiplane and sent forth a host of Flamewing paintings. His Bound Energy Canvas was eventually unlocked, but Luther, Coral, and Disaster were held back to complete their evolutions.

“Finally,” Cha Ming said, opening his eyes. The Dao origin of the Claw Vice Demiplane completed its fusion, and he pulled what remained of the demiplane into the Clear Sky World. It shifted and transformed as per his imagined painting. His vision, and the world’s vision, became reality.

The appearance of the full demiplane brought another wave of chaos to the Clear Sky World, as it marked the beginning of Cha Ming’s breakthrough. His energy fluctuations became unstable, and he knew that there would be no hiding his intentions any longer.

The Flamewing Demiplane and the Claw Vice Demiplane simultaneously broke through to early law stitching. This was the maximum strength of life that each world could accommodate and was not to be confused with their actual power.

Cha Ming’s capacity for mortal planes quadrupled, and his body began to automatically draw in energy to complete them. His Dao energy pool expanded accordingly, and the rate at which he generated crystals doubled, though he sensed that by growing these demiplanes, it would be possible to double this rate once again.

His elation was short-lived, however, as a sense of crisis filled every fiber of his being. His dreamlike state was cut short by a massive crack that appeared on the surface of his Divine Shell, the membrane protecting his inner universe.

He immediately realized the source of the problem. “The two law fields in my inner world just increased because of the breakthrough. Before, there was enough room for both law fields, but now, my inner world can’t accommodate them.”

Cha Ming stared at the world with horrified fascination. “Ninesky? What do we do now?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Ninesky answered. “I’m just a tool, Cha Ming. I’m not omnipotent.”

“Are you omniscient?” Cha Ming asked. “Because I see no way to rectify this problem.”

“I used to be,” said Ninesky. “But that wasn’t fun, so I forgot it all. Sorry. Can’t help you.”

***

It was said that Oster Fireblight lived for war. He relished in the suffering of enemies and allies alike as they fought and bled for riches that they would eventually send his way. There was a story going around on the Inkwell Plane that he regularly held chess tournaments using living men and women as pieces. That had only happened once, but people never stopped mentioning it.

In Oster’s opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. He lived for profit, and the battlefield just happened to be a great place to earn money. And not just because of the fighting itself—weapons and alchemical products saw large increases of price during times of war and chaos, meaning that you could double-dip every conflict.

Profit came in many forms, and on the Chasewind Plane, it came in the form of points. Points that he could use to purchase immortal-grade techniques. Points that he could use to improve his armaments. Every battle Oster fought was a complex calculation where he tallied losses and gains in points.

Currently, Oster was after points for sorting out deficiencies in the Chasewind Plane’s membrane. To obtain these points, however, he had to buy precious time for Clear Sky to do… whatever he was doing.

The details didn’t matter. Only results mattered, which could be measured in personal points gained, closely followed by the points of his semi-loyal companions, if necessary.

Which was why he was doing his best to minimize his own fatigue and that of his companions at the expense of Clear Sky and Cao Wenluan.

Commander he might be, but these people were no fools. Eight Directions and Cao Wenluan had long since seen through his ploy. Which was why he only half trusted the list of explosive traps Huxian had given him and was slowly but surely activating them as the battle progressed.

“There’s a group of fiends inbound on your flank, Eight Directions,” Oster said. “Three devourer-class fiends, four rank-thirteen fiends, fifty elites, and roughly a thousand bat-variety cannon fodder.”

“Got it,” Huxian said. “What do you suggest?”

“I suggest using the trap not far away from your location,” Oster said. “If we do things that way, we’ll minimize your group’s energy expenditure.”

“That seems wasteful, doesn’t it?” Huxian said. “I just spent a good half hour setting up a pike line of spatial glass. We’ll use that.”

Oster cursed the clever fox but could only agree with this superior plan. There’s only so long you’ll be able to put it off, Eight Directions. And the more you struggle, the lower your energy reserves will be.

“Cao Wenluan, what’s your status?” Oster asked.

“We finished off the enemy, and we’re resting,” Cao Wenluan said. “Our energy reserves are a little low, and I don’t want to put my people in danger.”

“I know you’re tired, but we’re going to need you to take care of an incoming wave,” Oster said. “I’ll tell you what—Eight Directions laid a trap down a while back. Why don’t I give you the coordinates and you use said trap to deal with them?”

Cao Wenluan replied ten seconds later. “I just spoke to my team, and it looks like the enemy should be manageable. We’ll see if we can take care of them, but why don’t you give me the coordinates of the trap just in case?”

“It’s very important that we keep these traps concealed,” Oster replied.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to keep them top secret,” Cao Wenluan replied. “Every asset in our possession is precious and shouldn’t be squandered.”

They bickered for a while, and in the end, Oster was forced to cough up the location. Either Cao Wenluan would use said information and expend one of Huxian’s traps, or he would exert more energy to keep it. On the surface, this was a loss for Oster, but in reality, it was his gain. The trap was one of the many fake traps he’d deduced, which would either make Cao Wenluan eat a huge loss or make him doubt Eight Directions’s intentions.

Luther, Coral, and Disaster had finally joined the battlefield, and Oster made a point of depleting their energy reserves as well. Unfortunately, their leader, Luther, was especially cunning, and had managed to minimize their expenditures.

“Xing Tianlong, how are things on your side?” Oster transmitted.

“I’ve managed to destroy quite a few of Zenol’s command relays,” Xing Tianlong answered. Zenol was this fiendish fortress’s commander. If Tianlong was to be believed, he was a bit of a coward, and probably wouldn’t show himself until all of his troops were expended.

“Any sign of Zenol himself?” Oster asked.

“He’s probably waiting in ambush,” said Xing Tianlong. “By the way, I identified a few more false traps on the list you gave me. That fox isn’t the most reliable fellow, is he?”

Oster reviewed the list Xing Tianlong transmitted and made a note to verify them. He trusted Tianlong just about as much as he trusted Eight Directions. The problem was that he needed the spear wielder until the very end. Dealing with him after that would be far from easy.

The biggest losers of the battle were Wei Longshen and Petros Sullivan. Both of them relied extensively on manufactured goods. Petros, his eternal rival, had long since seen through his ploy, but Oster’s clever maneuvering had forced him to deplete much of his precious ammunition to preserve battle power.

“That was the last of my spirits,” Wei Longshen transmitted to Oster. “From now on, all I have is my music.”

“You bought us precious time, Longshen,” Oster said. He only half believed the man, but accusing him of lying outright would ruin the game they were playing. “Huxian, Jadefall, and Wu. Is your fusion combination back up yet?”

“We’ve got three minutes before we can use it again,” Huxian said. “The usual?”

“Wait ten minutes, then activate,” Oster confirmed. He never had them attack right away, and instead varied the time between activations. This way, he would have a hidden card to play in the future. Also, he very much doubted the cooldown period Huxian had given him was accurate.

As luck would have it, this came sooner than expected. Zenol managed to sneak a group of eighteen rank-thirteen fiends through their formation, targeting both Wu and Undine, who were essential to the battle.

“Do it now!” Oster commanded Huxian, and even activated one of his more precious skills, Unholy Armaments, greatly increasing their offense. Without Undine, there was no meaning to any of his maneuvering.

Huxian directly took Wu and Jadefall into his body and activated their fusion transformation. This fused eight-tailed fox form was twice as large as usual. Two of its tails glowed with vibrant jade and ochre coloring, as did many pieces of his armor.

Fusion abilities were generally quite powerful, and a three-way fusion ability like Huxian’s was downright frightening. He rampaged through the group of fiends with claws that tore through space and tails that could bind even the most powerful fiends for several seconds.

In this form, heaven and earth energies yielded to his will. A trigram appeared around the invading troops, pulling them toward a region of space where space shattered and tore them apart. The fox then followed up with Space-Time Devouring, fully consuming even fiendish energies. Their energy stores were almost half replenished when they split up.

That’s going to be tricky to deal with in the final battle, thought Oster. Maybe I should instigate something between Clear Sky’s companions and Cao Wenluan’s , just in case?

Speaking of Cao Wenluan’s team, they were performing much better than he’d expected. This was due to Autumn’s Call, who could summon an indestructible army of dried leaves. These leaves could resist fiendish corruption. As such, Oster had not been able to deplete Cao Wenluan’s energy very much.

It was Clear Sky who worried him most, however, because he didn’t know what he was doing. For all he knew, he was painting up an army inside that demiplane, waiting for the right time to strike. This was assuming he had a way to dissolve contracts, of course. It was a safe assumption to make regarding each of his supposed allies.

“I don’t know if you can hear me right now, Clear Sky, but I could really use an army of paintings,” Oster said to no one in particular. He doubted he’d get anything, but that one time, it had worked, and he’d received the three bloodstorm cats as helpers.

To his surprise, Cha Ming answered, if not in a direct way. There was a familiar pulse of energy as limits were broken, and heaven and earth energy mobilized to replenish a deficiency.

“A breakthrough?” Oster muttered. “I didn’t expect that, but it makes sense. It looks like my plan will need revising.”

Unfortunately, things didn’t end there. The demiplane, which had remained quiet for so long, began to collapse on itself. Two powerful law fields suddenly asserted themselves on the battlefield. One was the familiar Bound Energy Canvas, and another was something Oster had never heard of before.

Well, at least we’ll be more relaxed fighting the fiends, Oster thought to himself. “Wait—no, no, no! Stop it Clear Sky! Retract everything!” But too late. A surge of energy suddenly blasted out from a spatial rift, piercing toward Cha Ming’s location. Normally, Oster would be thrilled, but they’d yet to receive points for resolving the decaying demiplane.

“Cao Wenluan, if you don’t do something, we’re dead!” said Oster.

“Oster, you’re a useless general!” Cao Wenluan cursed. He turned to lightning and intercepted the beam of energy heading for Clear Sky’s position mid-flight. His blade shattered, and the backlash sent him flying into the crumbling demiplane, accelerating its collapse.

The enemy army shook and began to reorganize itself as Zenol, realizing what was at stake, issued new orders.

“What was that?” asked Huxian.

“Did Zenol just attack?” asked Xing Tianlong.

“Companions, it would appear that the jig is up,” Oster said. “Clear Sky isn’t just taking care of that demiplane—he’s absorbing it.”

There was an awkward pause. “That’s good, isn’t it?” Huxian said. “We’re allies, aren’t we?”

Oster gritted his teeth. “Yes, it’s wonderful. Assuming we can protect him.” Long enough for us to get points out of this whole ordealwere his unsaid words. “Tianlong, how often can he unleash a beam attack like that?”

“Not often at all,” replied Xing Tianlong. “Zenol’s fortress no longer has a power source, so he’d only be able to do that a few more times at most. And definitely not consecutively.”

“What I could really use right now is an army,” Oster said. “Not a bunch of elite cultivators like us, but a real army.” His voice cut off as several dozen portals opened up and started pouring out paintings, powerful paintings of initial-law-stitching quality or higher. Most of them were Flamewing paintings, like he’d sent earlier, but many of them were larger crustaceans, namely of the crab and lobster variety.

Sorry for the delay, said Cha Ming through his law projection. I’ve sent what Flamewing and Claw Vice paintings I can. Apologies about not letting you know about my breakthrough. The demiplane should stabilize around the same time as I finish. Many thanks for defending me.

“Not a problem, Clear Sky,” Oster said, containing his rage. He took command of the paintings and issued some orders before opening up a secret communications channel.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “we have a situation.”