PtM Book 17 - Chapter 42: The Third Phase

1/2 this week. Enjoy ^^

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Now that the general situation on the Chasewind Plane was decided, Cha Ming and the others returned to the Heartforge Realm to complete the last leg of their training. Cha Ming sought out Dao God Heavenbind and Immortal White for an intensive consultation. His fighting style had already solidified, so they were much more liberal in their criticisms.

Cha Ming’s brush arts hadn’t changed much over the past few decades. River Lake Style still served as his core painting style, as it could be used to paint anything from landscapes to creatures to laws, but Bloodstorm Style was his go-to for violence. Spirit Flame Style was versatile and effective against fiends, so he didn’t neglect it. As for Erasure Style, there was no effective way to practice it.

Eight-Directions Style was new to his repertoire. The ability to paint in spatial elements and flatten any battlefield was an especially useful ability. He worked with Huxian to accumulate a few more tricks like quick teleportation doors to redirect enemy attacks.

Cha Ming’s physical combat was also in need of refinement. Now that he had access to Clear Mist Energy, and a Dao Domain, his Clear Rune Battle Art had taken on a life of their own. Clear Rune Steps was already an established part of his style, but Clear Rune Defence was in need of an upgrade. With further tweaking, he was able to connect the art with the natural Clearmist Runes on his skin that made up his divine shell. Every time he took damage, much of it would passively disperse into his Dao Domain, which was now a full 500 kilometers in diameter.

Clear Rune Strike operated in reverse. By drawing small amount of energy from his Dao Domain, he was able to greatly enhance the power of his attacks. That same energy could be mobilized to execute Clear Rune Constriction. At his level, it could be used to restrain even a prepared middle law stitching cultivator for several seconds.

The last time Cha Ming had visited, he’d finalized Bloodstorm rush and Bloodstorm Crush. His latest battles against Xing Tianlong and Cao Wenluan had inspired him to conclude this sequence with Bloodstorm Execution.

Savage Deity Execution relied on insane speed and brutality to quickly pile on damage. Cha Ming was lacking in both respects, but he had something that others did not: clones, and lots of them! With a clever combination of clones, Clear Rune Steps, and Bloodstorm Rush, Cha Ming was able to finally deduce Bloodstorm Execution. By using it, it was possible for Cha Ming to continuously lock down an enemy, whittling away at their life force until they perished.

“This bound energy canvas of yours is quite something,” Immortal White remarked during a consultation. “Integrating creation and destruction so perfectly is difficult. Even I am envious of its utility.”

“There’s no need to be envious,” Cha Ming said. “I’ll tell you the secret. All you need to do is fuse all three of your energies together and absorb a demiplane.”

Immortal White snorted. “You might not know this, but few people successfully fuse their energies before ascension. Fifty percent is the limit, and that includes the geniuses of the Heartforge Realm. In the immortal realms, few would attempt such a thing before reaching the peak of the emperor realm.”

“Why not?” Cha Ming asked. “You’d think the immortal realms wouldn’t lack the knowledge.”

“What do you know?” Immortal White said. “Once life forms reach the immortal level, their natures become infinitely more complex. The Divine Law Spirit Stitching Scripture you cultivated only works prior to ascension. You’d need a completely different scripture to complete fusing your energies after reaching immortality. Further, the resources required are expensive enough to make an emperor balk, forget lowly immortals who barely started cultivating.”

Only then did Cha Ming truly understand how much of a blessing it was to have been sent to the Heartforge Realm. In the immortal realms, only superpowers would be able to receive the same level of nurturing he did. And even then, they might be lacking in comparison. So Cha Ming counted his blessings and cultivated with every spare moment he could manage.

A year passed by in a relaxed fashion, and in that time, Cha Ming’s foundation became incomparably solid. Though he did not need to cultivate to accumulate energy, focused meditation helped him guide his inner universe and improve it more quickly.

Cha Ming confirmed, to his disappointment, that there was no easy way to accelerate his cultivation using external supplements. This was especially troublesome for him because he and Huxian only had a thousand years of lifespan remaining.

When he inquired about incorporating primal chaos energy and external planar materials more quickly, Godking Heavenbind pointed him to the library. “You need a divine art to do what you want,” said Godking Heavenbind. “There’s no way around it.”

“But divine arts are expensive,” Cha Ming said. “It’ll cost me fifty million points at the minimum. And I could still fail!”

Cha Ming had no better options, so he went to visit Immortal Heartlock. The librarian burst out laughing when Cha Ming pleaded for a discount. “Fifty million points?! You think that’s a lot? Fine. Don’t bother. Let’s see how you keep cultivating without a divine art to supply that ridiculous inner universe of yours.”

Cha Ming grimaced. “If it wasn’t for me cultivating the Divine Law Spirit Scripture, which you gave me, I wouldn’t need to do crazy things like absorb demiplanes. It’s your fault, really.”

“Without that scripture you’d be dead,” Immortal Heartlock countered. “And you won’t just be absorbing demiplanes going forward. Every time you advance, you’ll need to add to the transcendent demiplanes in your inner universe. Your energy requirements will increase exponentially.”

“So… will you give me a discount?” Cha Ming asked.

“Over my dead body,” Immortal Heartlock said. “The Star Void Spirit Refining Technique is a perfect fit for you. You’ll learn it in no time at all.”

In the end, Cha Ming could only swallow his indignation and purchase the technique. His point count decreased to 190 million, pulling him out of the top ten and significantly reducing the pressure on him in the Chasewind Plane. Huxian followed his lead and purchased a suitable demonic cultivation art.

There were… accidents on the way out of the library, which nearly resulted in Cha Ming getting banned. “Ninesky, for the love of all that is holy, please don’t burn down the bookshelf. He didn’t mean it.”

“I hate that librarian!” Ninesky said. She moved to kick a bookshelf, but Cha Ming restrained her. “He insulted me! I demand satisfaction!”

“He’s just very found of the brushes he collects, Ninesky,” Cha Ming said. “He has a brush that was personally used by Fuxi. ‘Your brush is almost as nice as mine’ can be considered high praise, coming form him.”

“It’s an insult, I tell you!” Ninesky said. “Worse than an insult! Don’t you dare hold be back, Cha Ming, I’m going to torch this entire library! Spirit Flame Style!”

In the end, he was able to coax her with a promise of sweets, and a discussion about her transformative abilities. “To truly cultivate this Star Void Spirit Refining Technique, I’m going to need a Star Void Cauldron. And you’re saying you can transform into one?”

“Of course I can,” Ninesky said. “Just give me the metals, and I’ll transform into any cauldron.”

“Then the Clear Sky Carving Knife…”

“Any blade!” Ninesky said proudly.

“The Clear Sky Hammer – “

“Any hammer!” Ninesky insisted. “But you need to give me a design to work with. And you need to feed me their materials. I won’t accept any of the cheaper stuff though. I will require nothing but the best going forward.”

Encouraged by her words, Cha Ming spent 10 million to buy a large amount of star void iron to craft Ninesky’s cauldron form. He spent several weeks smelting metal and hammering out the shape into a very beautiful cauldron that Ninesky insisted on showing off.

“I’ve never seen such a beautiful Star Void Cauldron!” Immortal Heartlock exclaimed upon seeing it. He made many offers to Cha Ming to trade for his cauldron. Alas, he was disappointed to find out that it was soul bound; Cha Ming couldn’t trade it even if he wanted to.

Cha Ming and Huxian both required vast resources to cultivate. Demiplane fragments were required to build up mortal and transcendent planes, and Huxian required primal chaos energy to nurture his bloodline and heal over his lost tails. He also required premium crafting materials to experiment with.

The duo had already cleaned out the Chasewind Plane of building materials, but fortunately, the Heartforge Realm specialized in cleaning out collapsing worlds. Not only did it have an abundance of low-grade planar debris just floating around, but it also even handed out rewards for doing so.

The duo spent years travelling across the Heartforge Realm. They didn’t return until Huxian’s tails were healed over and his bloodline was brimming with strength. He’d yet to break through to the early fusion realm, but all it would take was a bit of accumulation.

Cha Ming’s inner grew to several times its original size. The Flamewing Demiplane had grown to twice its original size and could not grow until Cha Ming evolved another law rune and fused it with a second demiplane.

As for which demiplane that would be, Cha Ming had no idea. He now had transcendent demiplanes worth of material, but all of them had yet to develop a planar core.

“Man, that it took forever to heal up my tails,” Huxian said. “I’m never doing that again, Cha Ming. Ever.”

“I promise never to ask for your tails again,” Cha Ming said. “Cross my heart, hope to die.”

“The worst part was the stasis sandwiches,” said the fox. They’re fine for the first bit, but after a few months, they have this taste.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Cha Ming said. “Anyway, it’s good to be back at the twin mountains again.”

“Food first?” Huxian suggested.

“Only after I challenge the Heartforge Trials again,” Cha Ming said. “Last time, I didn’t get to finish them before the next phase started.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to clear them this time?” Huxian asked. “You’d think clearing them would have been easy before, but you came up just a bit shy.”

Cha Ming shrugged. “My inner world needed solidifying. How I was I supposed to know it would take so long to fix that?”

Cha Ming’s law cultivation had been especially lacking. His paintings had reached a bottleneck, but thankfully, he remembered a training tool he’d forgotten all about, Fuxi’s puzzle box.

The puzzle box had three levels, and with his solid foundation, Cha Ming was able to easily pass the box’s second level and open its reward compartment. Inside it were six items in total. Five were scrolls technique scrolls, which provided an expansion to Raging Waves of the Inky Sea and the other four monarch techniques.

The last item was a key, inky and black. Like the puzzle box, it was a peak law-stitching artifact. Most of the runes on its surface were for durability, but Cha Ming was able to identify a few deep formations lines that could be used to ‘unlock’ whatever formation it was tied to.

The key also seemed to possess sentience. Upon sensing Cha Ming’s presence, hummed with approval and floated before him. “You want me to take you with me?” Cha Ming asked, sensing its intentions. “You want me to unlock something?” It hummed once more.

Cha Ming was about to reach out for it, but the moment he did, dozens of paper talismans shot out from Fuxi’s Puzzle Box. They were covered in unfathomable golden runes centered around a familiar style of talisman artistry, poetic talisman arts.

These talismans possessed Elder Ling’s aura, so he did not interfere when they pasted themselves upon the furious black key. An enormous amount of power revealed itself from within the key, but it was rapidly sealed up by the talismans, which then dragged the sealed key towards Cha Ming.

“Take it!” Elder Ling’s voice called out. “Don’t trust… Open the door… Not…. Ready… Too powerful… Trapped…”

Cha Ming wasn’t sure what to make of the words. To him, they were pure nonsense. A door? What door? Who was powerful? Who was trapped? Who shouldn’t he trust? It was clear from Elder Ling’s  tone of voice that he was in trouble, but nothing had been said about his location. The only hint he had was this sealed key, which was struggling to free itself from its bondage.

Since the key is important, I should protect it, Cha Ming thought. Perhaps I can use it to find Elder Ling when I get back.  He reached out to grab the key, but the moment he touched the sealing talismans, aw thirteenth talisman appeared. It was many times more powerful than the others, thanks to the ink that was used to produce it. It was painted in soul blood. Elder Ling’s soul blood.

Unlike the prior twelve talismans, which were used to seal the key, this one pricked his skin and drew out blood. The droplet of blood combined with the talisman and covered the key in several layers of golden-red runes that suppressed the howling key.

The key was clearly not a normal one, for it let forth a burst of power that distorted local natural laws. Alas, this was the Heartforge Realm. Its laws were far stronger than those of the Inkwell Plane. The key was supressed by the golden runes as Cha Ming’s blood was used to form a karmic connection.

Now, the key was his. Only he would be able to use it. It was also bound to his soul. Should he perish, the key would be destroyed as well.

This only served to further confuse Cha Ming. What was the key for? Why did it possess its own will and power? Elder Ling had undoubtedly spent a lot of effort giving this too him; he’d even created a peak law stitching talisman using his own soul blood!

Cha Ming dearly missed his teacher. A cultivator at his realm should be nearly invincible on the Inkwell Plane, but he couldn’t help but worry.

It did not take long for Cha Ming and Huxian to reach the twin mountains. It was early afternoon, so industrious cultivators had set up snack stands around trial hall. “Oooo, skewers,” Huxian said. “How about we buy some? I’m starving.”

“Not before I challenge the obelisks,” Cha Ming insisted. “I already told you, the last time I came out of seclusion, the Heartforge Spirit called us all for an emergency meeting. I had to wait until we got back to complete the trials.”

“Cha Ming, you’re unlucky, but not that unlucky,” Huxian said. “Let’s get a snack. Let’s relax. There’s not telling what kind of crappy food we’ll need to eat when the third phase starts.” In the end, Cha Ming relented. Huxian obtained his snacks, and so did Ninesky.

They were about to proceed to the trial hall, when as predicted, misfortune struck again. A loud gong sounded, summoning them all to the chaotic valley between the jade and ochre mountains.

“You go on ahead,” Cha Ming said. “This might be my last chance to complete the Heartforge Trials. I refuse to let bad luck get in my way.” He flew as quickly as he could, rushing past busy staff and pushing through lines, only to discover that the trials had grown dim. A sign hung over them, which read ‘down for maintenance’.

“Down for maintenance?” Cha Ming shouted. “What is there to maintain!”

“It’s just a yearly check,” said the immortal in charge of maintaining them. “You can come back in three days. The trials will still be there when you get back.”

Cha Ming wanted to cry, but he had no tears left. Why did this happen every time? The reward for completing any one of the grade 9 trial obelisks was 25 million points. Even completing one or two of them would solidify his lead over the competition. Now, he might never get to complete them.

In the end, he had no choice but to fly over to the meeting area. As the last to arrive, he became the target of the Heartforge Spirit’s ire. The Heartforge spirit docked him a million points to wasting everyone’s time. It was the most outrageous abuse of authority Cha Ming had seen to date.

“Now that you’ve all arrived, I will begin explaining the third phase of the Heartforge Trials,” said the Heartforge Spirit. “Effective immediately, you are all conscripted. Observe!” The projection of a familiar planet appeared.

“As you surely know by now, each of the worlds you have been sent to have sustained some form of damage. This has resulted in a destructive spiral that would eventually result in the world’s demise if left untreated. The world displayed here is the Chasewind Plane. It sustained heavy damage to both poles, though as you can see, the damage has eased considerably on the south pole thanks to the efforts of hard-working wardens.

“Originally, the plan was to mobilize the northern and southern hemisphere separately, but thanks to everyone’s efforts, there is no need for a large military presence in the southern hemisphere any longer. As a result, everyone be sent northward to fight for the plane’s survival.

“The essence of the third phase is to harvest what has been sown. The impact of a single person is limited – but their karmic effects are not. Everyone’s interactions with their assigned regions have undoubtedly achieved a positive effect. The third phase will measure that effect, and calculate the overall impact of a warden’s presence based on the performance of those in their regions.

“Every time a field is killed, every time a vital point is defended, and every time the plane’s interests are advanced, points will be accrued and calculated. This will be the most comprehensive assessment of your performance to date.

A cultivator rose their hand to ask a question. “Yes, Daoist Silver Moon?” said the Heartforge Spirit.

“Will we not be participating in the third round?” she asked.

“Of course, you’ll be participating,” said the Heartforge Spirit. “Direct fiend kills will also earn you points, and the rewards will be higher than normal. But it’s as I stated earlier – the abilities of an individual – excluding extreme outliers – are limited. The best performers in this final trial will leverage the might of their allies.

“What exactly is measured?” Cha Ming asked the Heartforge Spirit.

“Everything,” said the Heartforge Spirit. “Everything and anything. That applies both to improving and to worsening the situation. Take this scenario, for example: if one collapsed the plane’s fragile membrane to destroy a large group of fiends, they would both be rewarded for slaying the fiends and penalized for endangering the plane’s Dao origins.

The Heartforge Spirit’s words contained many possibilities. If actions could be penalized, did this mean that interfering with one another would also be penalized? If so, they’d need to be careful with how they interacted with other wardens.

Those from the Chasewind Plane had additional factors to consider. Although the Heartforge Spirit had not directly addressed the matter, it had implied that Cha Ming and Huxian could use the same methods from before to help fix the Chasewind Plane.

“In the end, the rules are simple, but the possibilities are endless,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “From now on, you are to proceed to your assigned plane. No one is to return until the trial is over. Don’t worry about anything but the fight up ahead. You will have ample opportunity to spend points upon returning.”

Cha Ming wanted to ask about the trial obelisks, but having already been fined a million points, he chose not to. The Heartforge Spirit Flame shared a few more details pertaining to their specific planes and assigned missions to each of them before cutting them loose.

“Come on, this is getting ridiculous,” Huxian said.

“I know, right?” Cha Ming said. “I was so close to completing the trials. That spirit has it out for me, I’m telling you.”

“Oh, I was talking about the missions,” Huxian said. “They’re clearly making things difficult for us.”

“Are they?” Cha Ming asked. “I think it makes sense to send us all to the same battlefield.”

“And how are we going to be able to get points with those three lurking about?” Huxian asked. “We won’t even be able to sneeze without the others knowing about it. We won’t be able to sweep the northern hemisphere clean.”

“I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do the same thing we did in the southern hemisphere,” Cha Ming said. “The northern hemisphere’s damage is more comprehensive. And besides, haven’t you noticed? The Heartforge Spirit’s assignments are often frustrating on the surface, but they’ve all served to challenge us in all the right ways. I don’t think this third trial will be any different.”

“I just don’t like them,” Huxian said. “Or their minions.”

“Agreed,” Cha Ming said. “They’re repulsive human beings. Which is why I think we should call a meeting.”

“So my place, with the gang?” Huxian asked.

“Not just them,” Cha Ming said. “Everyone.”

“Awe,” said Huxian. “Then make it your place. I’m not letting any of those goons anywhere near my property.”

“Fine,” Cha Ming said. “Just try to stay open-minded.”