PtM Book 17 - Chapter 6: The Ravages of Time

2/3 this week.

Also, I'm going to be shifting the prologue I posted earlier to the end of the book (with modifications). Apologies for the confusion. In hindsight, makes for a much better cliffhanger epilogue than a prologue. As for the Yama bit, I'll include it at the end (unmodified) as a bonus chapter. Yama vs Angels and Devils (Corporate Style).

PS: By the way, have any of you ever read the manga 'The Ravages of Time'? I read quite a bit of it back in the day, and I miss it. But it got slow, and I started reading webnovels, so I dropped it. Does anyone know if it got any better?

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A short while later, Cha Ming and the five elders of the Blood Leaf Clan sat Clear Sky World, recovering. Sect Master Unbroken Branch had joined them, and was respectfully answering questions posed by the previous elders in the Blood Leaf Sect.

Convincing them to enter the Clear Sky World had not been difficult. After regaining their hard-earned freedom, they found themselves besieged from outside the prison. With no time to recover, only death awaited them.

Their current location was somewhere underground, a full fifty kilometers away from the Blood Leaf Sect. By using Clear Rune Steps in conjunction with the Seventy-Two Transformations Technique, Cha Ming was able to pass through earth, through walls, and even through solid rock formations.

The four elders were very powerful, so Cha Ming asked them how their juniors had managed to imprison them. “They did it with poison,” the first elder explained. “Fed to us by our own apprentices no less. Then they locked us in that dreadful prison and used a formation from the Blood God Sect to drain our blood.”

Cha Ming was shocked. “You mean you’ve been bleeding in a prison ever since?”

“For three or four years now, I think,” the fourth elder confirmed. “It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re lock up underground.” She rotated a shoulder and winced. “The worst part is what happens to your joints. Let me tell you, you need to pay special attention to your knees. Even demigods can develop arthritis, and knee-replacement artifacts just aren’t the same as your original knees.”

“Ahem.” The second elder cleared his throat. “I believe that has less to do with remaining immobile and more to do with the acupuncture needles still stuck inside said joints. And still lodged inside everyone’s bodies as well.”

“Ah. Right.” The fourth elder wisely stopped moving and focused on recovering. Cha Ming had plenty of transcendent crystals and medicines stocked up in the Clear Sky World and was doing his best to assist them.

Removing acupuncture needles was tricky business, especially when those needles had been inserted to cause harm rather than heal. He removed them one at a time, then used his own Yin-Yang Spirit Threading Needles to mobilize the healing energies in their bodies and chase out the cold that had settled into their bodies.

As he worked, he explained what he’d witnessed in Bloodfield, as well as his discoveries in the military and the Blood Leaf Sect. He let Sect Master Unbroken Branch explain the fate of his sect and the surrounding area.

“It seems the elders and inner sect elders can’t be salvaged,” the second elder said. “The only ones worth saving were taken into the prison, and there’s no telling when they’ll ever recover.”

“Perhaps the outer sect disciples can still be salvaged,” said the first elder. “But it will take a lot of work to deprogram them. My only concern is what we’ll do afterward. Let’s say we saunter over to the Blood Leaf Sect and destroy the inner sect and kill all the elders. What then? There is no place for us in this new Blood God Region, but blood cultivation is all we know. We can’t just migrate to another region. They’ll never accept us.”

“We could go to the True Blood Monastery and see if they will take us in,” said the fourth elder. “They’ve always been friendly with us, and one of their elders is an old flame.”

“If you want to tangle with those crazy monks, that’s your business,” the third elder said. “Maniacs, all of them. Which is why we’re in this situation to begin with.”

“They say the True Blood Monastery ambushed the Blood God Sect,” Cha Ming said. “And that as punishment, they volunteered to go to the Southern Battlefield.”

“That’s a load of hogwash,” the third elder said. “The True Blood Sect was in the south to begin with. They’ve been fighting since the beginning and never stopped.”

“They had the confrontation recorded,” Cha Ming pointed out.

“But confrontations can be staged,” the second elder pointed out. “For example, what if the Blood God Sect did something terrible that forced the True Blood Monastery to attack them?”

“Even if Patriarch Blood God broke through, and all of his elders, for that matter, they’d never be able to fight the True Blood Sect head on,” said the first elder. “I’d wager that the True Blood Sect lost a minor skirmish and is just too lazy to contradict them. They never liked managing the region in the first place.”

“As for joining the True Blood Sect, it’s not an option. They only accept youngsters and orphans who have never cultivated before. They do not accept recruits who’ve cultivated other arts before.

“Then I don’t see any other options,” said the third elder. “We need to migrate.”

“But we can’t leave the Blood God Region,” said the fourth elder.

“Because of blood energy?” Cha Ming asked.

The first elder confirmed his suspicions. “You might not know this, but the regional divisions are not random. The Chasewind Plane initially had a total of 53 different regions, and twelve holy lands, each of which were uniquely suited to different cultivation methods.”

“Why don’t we try our luck at joining a demonic sect?” asked the third elder. “There are lands that suit us in demon territory, assuming they’re willing to accommodate us.”

“That might be possible, in theory, but travelling there would take years,” said the second elders. “We’re talking about territories on the other side of the planet.”

“If you wish to travel to the other side of the plane, I can help you with this,” Cha Ming said. “My demon companion runs a teleportation network that facilitates safe travel across the entire southern hemisphere.”

“That’s impossible,” said the third elder.

“It’s very possible,” Cha Ming said. “Unfortunately, I can’t take you there right this minute. I have work to do in the Blood God Region, and it could take me months. What’s worse, this pocket realm doesn’t operate on real time. Time passes by ten times quicker inside here than normal, which means that if you stayed here, which you are welcome to, you might have to wait a decade to come back out.”

“Excuse me?” the fourth elder said, leaning in like an old friend. “Sorry, Clear Sky, but my ears sometimes fail me in my old age. Did you say ten-fold time acceleration?”

“That’s correct,” Cha Ming said. “So you can be at ease recovering here, at least for a little while.”

“I’ve heard of four-fold time acceleration, but ten-fold?” said the second elder.

“I wouldn’t think too much on it if I were you,” Cha Ming said. “As I told you earlier, I’m from the Heartforge Realm, and five-fold time acceleration is pretty standard.” In a very small area where a single person could sit down to cultivate. “I think we agree in principle to destroy the Blood Leaf Sect, but before we do that, the four of you need to recover.”

“With you and the four of us, it’s no problem at all,” the second elder said. “The newest batch of elders might be law-stitching powerhouses, but their foundation is weak and their experience is lacking.”

“But our wounds aren’t exactly light,” said the third elder.

“Ten-fold time acceleration, Old Third,” the fourth elder said.

“True enough,” said Old Third. “If you gave us ten weeks to recover here, or a week in the outside world, we should be able to recover to nine tenths of our original strength. Assuming, of course, that you can solve the dreadful energy concentration in this place.”

“That won’t be a problem,” Cha Ming said. “I’m by no mean rich, but I have quite a few resources stocked up.” He was probably richer than most Tier 1 sects, but there was no need to share this information.

“Then that just leaves the question of what we’ll do next,” the first elder said. “But first, I’d like to ask you what your plans are. Why did you break into the Blood Leaf Sect’s prison? Why did you save the Unbroken Branch sect? What will you do next?”

“I saved the Unbroken Branch Sect because I happened to find them in distress,” Cha Ming said. “As for the Blood Leaf Sect, I was investigating the horrifying behavior of certain local blood sects. I came here to investigate the sect and see if there was anything worth saving. I only found the four of you in the prison due to sheer coincidence.

“I still intend to destroy the sect, loot their storage and destroying their blood reserves if possible. And after that, I plan on doing the same to whatever evil sects I come across in the region. I’ll be focusing mostly on Tier 3 and Tier 4 sects, especially the so-called enforcer sects that collect blood from blood farms. I may also pay a visit to blood farms and see if they’re willing to accept temporary asylum.”

The first elder nodded. “A solid working plan. You might be powerful, but Tier 2 sects are stronger than you can imagine. Just be careful – the more trouble you cause for the Blood God Sect, the more likely they are to send Tier 2 enforcers to track you down. I believe also you’ve overlooked some key things.”

“Please enlighten me elder,” Cha Ming said. He wasn’t going to say no to advice from a three-thousand-year-old cultivator.

“Firstly, you need to revise how you plan to deal with each sect,” the first elder said. “Set some clear parameters to evaluate whether they should be exterminated. If they’re rotten to the core. Naturally the best course of action would be to annihilate the sect then confiscate their treasures and either destroy or confiscate their blood pools, but it is good to give sects the benefit of the doubt.”

“Shouldn’t a blood pool just be destroyed?” Cha Ming asked. “They’re filthy things. Contaminated with death and resentment.”

“As they are, they are useless things,” the first elder agreed. “But there are methods that can be used to purify such blood pools. I recall the Righteous Blood Sect doing so. Consider storing the blood and paying them a visit if you can.”

“The second matter has to do with how you deal with mixed cases like the Blood Leaf Sect. Here, the inner sect is rotten, but the outer sect is fine. That’s an awful lot of prisoners. Likewise, you might have sects with terrible leaders and reluctant elders or split elders. Or maybe you’ll find other sects in situations like ours. Consider how you can rescue their prisoners.”

“Managing so many prisoners is difficult, but if you are willing to accept us, we’ll help you mange them. We can also assist you in destroying and looting sects. With us at your side, Tier 3 sects shouldn’t pose a problem. And if you gather enough like-minded individuals, it might be possible to resist or cause problems for one of the Tier 2 sects.”

“We’d never suggest that normally, but you’re basically a wandering time treasure,” the fourth elder said. “The reason none of us have dared do anything is because they have the initiative. Whatever we try, we just won’t have the time to resist them. But with you, we might just stand a chance.”

“What you’re saying is that you’d like to form a resistance group and help me destroy these evil sects?” Cha Ming asked.

“As long as your goal is to fight for the innocent people in the Blood God Region, we are willing to fight at your side,” the first elder said. “Unless you disagree, Old Third?”

“I have no problem with fighting,” the third elder said. “I just don’t like being stupid about it.”

“Then it’s settled,” the first elder said. “As long as you’re willing.”

“I’m willing,” Cha Ming said. “But rest first. It won’t be too late to launch an attack when you’ve fully recovered.” Now that he had portable army to command, his task in the Blood God Region had become a whole lot easier.

***

Two weeks later, Cha Ming and the four Blood Leaf elders appeared above the Blood Leaf Sect. The mountain city had had mostly calmed down and was no longer in a state of emergency. But that changed the instant the five of them leaked out their auras. “Are you sure you can keep the inner sect contained?” the first elder asked Cha Ming.

“Not a problem,” Cha Ming said, summoning the Clear Sky Brush. It’s a small mountain. Only a few kilometers from base to peak.

The Clear Sky Brush moved with speed and precision, summoning entire segments of azure wind from the Clear Sky World. Twenty-three large azure wings came first, joined by a ring of metallic blue ink. A strong wind picked up around the sect as the twenty-three wings picked up speed, sweeping up increasingly coarse sand and grit into the brewing storm.

“I’ll need you to keep them off my back until I’m finished,” Cha Ming said to the four elders.

“Leave it to us,” the fourth elder said.

Cha Ming painted axels to coin the rim, completing the skeleton of an Azure Tempest Battlefield. He painted gusts of wind next out of near-transparent azure ink, and in seconds, the winds had reached a speed that no sane rune carving cultivator would dare to brave.

Five cultivators flew out from the sect to meet them. “Do you have any idea who it is that you’re provoking?” said Sect Master Blood Leaf, the strongest among the five initial law stitching cultivators of the Blood Leaf Sect. His eyes widened when he saw the four elders. “It’s you! You survived the explosion!”

“You tried to blow us up?” the fourth elder said. “I guess that suits you cold-blooded lot. But it makes it awfully hard to check if you finished the job now doesn’t it?”

“Attack!” the sect master shouted. His four companions immediately shot out towards the four elders. The sect master went directly for Cha Ming.

“I was hoping to finish my painting, but I guess there’s no helping it,” Cha Ming said. “Ninesky, keep painting for me. I’m going to see what Sect Master Blood Leaf is made of.” He summoned the Savage Deity War Staff and activated his Clear Rune Transformation state.

“You’ll see what I’m made of?” the sect master growled. “You’re just a muscle empowering cultivator. I’ll make you realize the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth.”

Down below, the sect’s elders and disciples had already fallen into position around four large trees. Each of these trees were filled with millions of bloody leaves that the sect had accumulated over many centuries. They began to glow with the aura of four seasons, which then converged on the elders and the sect master.

“My law is that of the Four Seasons of the Bloody Leaf,” Sect Master Blood Leaf said. “The four seasons are an unending cycle in which all things age.” He took out a horsetail whisk and flicked it in Cha Ming’s direction. “First season, Winter.”

Cha Ming braced himself as a cold wind froze his blood. His skin shattered, and his bones broke from the sudden change in temperature. It was difficult for most to resist higher level energies, but Cha Ming had tempered his body to extremes using the five elements. These light wounds quickly healed over, and he soon regained full use of his body.

“You’d better hurry up if you want to stop me,” Cha Ming said to the sect master. As he spoke, the azure tempest intensified, and the turbulent region grew until it was a hundred meters wide.

The sect master expression turned sollemn, and he immediately called out the next reason. “Second season, Spring!”

Bloody red flowers appeared all around Cha Ming and began to leech away his vitality. Having already experienced a similar law projection before, Cha Ming broke the law projection with ease using the power of his fused aura.

“Third season, Summer!” the sect master called out. Green leaves covered in fresh blood fell from the sky, cutting apart Cha Ming’s skin. These wounds did not heal over like they should, and soon, ten=colored blood was leaking from dozens of places on his body.

“Fourth season, Fall!” Cha Ming’s body began to wither.

But this was only the beginning, and Cha Ming had known that going in. This wasn’t just four law projections, superimposed, but a combination technique. The four elders controlled the seasons so that the sect master could wield their fusion.

“Four Seasons of the Blood Leaf, fuse!” the sect master commanded. Cha Ming’s surrounding lurched, and his painting froze in place. His body completely froze over, leaving only his blood to flow freely.

This didn’t just affect Cha Ming, but the four elders as well. At first, they had no issue supressing their rebellious apprentices, but now that time was on the sect master’s side, it was the apprentices that now had the upper hand.

“If you were a law-stitching cultivator, I would be worried,” Sect Master Blood Leaf said. “Your foundation is impressive for you to have survived so long. But it’s impossible for you to win. Time is the ultimate element, and the five of you are at the center of my power.”

Good, Cha Ming thought. Everything is going according to plan. The sect masters had gone over the possible ways that the Blood Leaf Sect might resist. Their actions until now had been to bait out this technique. It was a powerful technique, admittedly, and time was a powerful element. But according to Huxian, it had some major weaknesses.

“I’m curious to see if you can maintain this domain of slowed time,” Cha Ming said. He activated the first level of Triune Soul Burn. It did not boost his cultivation by a entire level, but it closed the gap between him and the sect master. Bright runes appeared on his skin, and thanks to their presence, the energy required to keep him frozen in place skyrocketed.

“Let’s see who runs out of energy first,” the sect master said. “You, or my entire sect!”

Cha Ming ignored the sect master and focused on the area around him. The first thing he did after activating Triune Soul Burn was to spread out pieces of his body and form clear runes. He then used these clear runes as a conduit to fill the space around him pure destruction qi.

Destruction qi was difficult to control, and it was only thanks to the connection his clear runes had with his body that he could release so much of it so quickly. The introduction of destruction qi instantly destabilized local space, causing it to shatter and warp at key point.

If it were any other situation, this level of spatial shattering wouldn’t matter. It was relatively easy to dodge smaller spatial cracks. But for the sect master, it was impossible. He’d frozen over a huge area to freeze time around Cha Ming and slow the other four elders.

Energy-wise, this was no problem for the sect’s four guardian trees. A few tens of thousands of blood leave evaporated to restabilize the field. But it was a different story for the sect master. It wasn’t the trees who were channeling this technique, but his body, and the body of his elders!

“Let’s see how long you can keep this up!” the sect master growled.

“Longer than you, I think,” Cha Ming said. He urged the Clear Sky Brush to move, and it did so, albeit slowly. The Azure Tempest Battlefield started spinning once again, further increasing the strain on Sect Master Blood Leaf.

“Blood reserves, to me!” Sect Master Blood Leaf called out. A quarter the bloody leaves on the four guardian trees rushed into his body, replenishing it. And for a time, this was enough.

Cha Ming continued to exert pressure using the Azure Tempest Battlefield. “Your sect formation is your sect’s greatest strength but a huge weakness,” he said. “As long as it remains unbroken, you are invincible. At the same time, it’s impossible for you to release the technique prematurely.” Another quarter of the leaves evaporated. “How long can you hold out? How long can they hold out? And what will you do when I start getting serious?”

Thanks to the protective runes on his skin, Cha Ming had regained his ability to move. He used Clear Rune Step to appear beside the sect master and smashed downward with the Savage Deity War Staff. Two illusory pillars superimposed onto the first, greatly increasing its strength.

The sect master had already reached his limit, but if he didn’t block Cha Ming’s staff, he would perish. He coughed up a mouthful of soul blood and spat it onto four special leaves that shot out from the sleeves of his robes. “Lifeblood Leaf Lock!” A small shield of frozen time appeared around the sect master. It shattered from the impact but sent a fierce recoil back Cha Ming’s way.

Cha Ming picked himself up and wiped ten-colored blood from his face. “Hm. It seems fusing my auras wasn’t without side effects. Savage Deity Crush is a bit lacking now.”

The sect master had clearly paid a huge price to execute Lifeblood Leaf Lock. His hair had turned white, and his skin was covered in wrinkles. The four seasons law started to show signs of weakening, but Cha Ming knew that it wouldn’t truly fade before the sect master’s life ran its course.

Cha Ming urged the Clear Sky Brush to keep moving. The tempest’s turbulent zone had grown to its limits. Just a little more, and the painting would be finished. Cha Ming took another Clear Rune Step and appeared above the tempest.

He pressed down with his foot and shoved it downward. “Azure Tempest… Descends!” The time lock broke, and a storm came crashing down upon the mountain.

The four-season trees shattered, sending bloody leaves and splintered wood flying about the sect. The wood, having absorbed the power of the four seasons for so long gave off an aura of withering and blooming, of life and death.

The sect master was little more than a shrivelled husk at this point, and beyond saving, but now the elders and all the inner sect masters began to shrivel and age. Time magic was powerful, but it was also a double-edged sword. These people had all linked their blood to the four seasons formation; now that it was defeated, they would have to pay the price.

The mountain shook as the azure tempest touched down, throwing up broken rocks and buildings that then wore away at it like a grind wheel. Even the mountain’s blood ore and transcendent crystal veins were churned up, but these were ground to dust and only added to the tempest’s strength.

The remaining disciples of the inner sect, seeing their homes destroyed and the sect master and the four elders defeated, scattered. They shot upward and out of the tempest, where a netting of azure ink awaited them. All those who touched the net were torn apart by intense spatial fluctuations. And those who weren’t had nowhere left to run as the net descended upon what was left of the inner sect.

Cha Ming pulled back the Azure Tempest Battlefield into the Clear Sky World, revealing a much smaller mountain peak, fully devoid of life and greenery. Only a third of the buildings in the inner sect remained; these buildings were naturally the most important ones, like the library and the treasury.

They found a few stragglers form the inner sect, but the four elders showed them no mercy. These people had betrayed their sect’s ideals and could only be eliminated.

“I believe it won’t be long before the Blood God Sect sends someone over,” Cha Ming said. “Let’s make the best of the time we have.”

“Old Second and I will go gather the outer sect members,” the first elder said. “The tempest was tightly controlled, so they shouldn’t have suffered too many casualties.”

“And I’ll take clear sky to the treasury and the blood pool,” said the third elder.

Cha Ming opened the Clear Sky World and had Sect Master Unbroken Branch and the stronger cultivators from his sect fan out to retrieve resources form the inner sect. They swept through the ruins of the inner sect, taking anything valuable, including high quality stone and beds and even clothing.

“I used to manage the treasury,” said the fourth elder. “Took in a few bribes here and there, but I was mostly honest.” They had no keys, but she had her means. She found a weak spot in the treasury wall and knocked it down. “Let’s see, here are the crystals, and the weapons and whatnot. Let’s take them all. The nicer ones are at the back, and – wait, what are those?”

“Sin treasures,” Cha Ming said, directly destroying the artifacts. A rush of merit flowed into his soul, healing some of the damage he’d suffered executing Triune Soul Burn.

After clearing out the treasury, they headed to the blood pool. “Back in my day, the blood pool looked nothing like this,” the fourth elder said. “When a sect’s members contribute to a blood pool, it has a righteous aura that resonates with their blood arts. But this? This is just corrupted filth. Barely better than poison.”

Cha Ming sighed as he looked down at the pond. “I don’t know if you can hear me,” he said to the pool. “I can see your resentment. I can feel your pain. You want vengeance against those who did this to you, but it’s difficult to know where to start.” The blood pool was so large that it had to contain the blood of at least a hundred thousand people.

He didn’t know if the pool heard him, but inside it, he felt a spirituality that reminded him of sacred sand. This pool was more than just a sinful cultivation material. It contained fragments of will.

“Here,” he said, inverting a gourd atop the blood pool. The gourd contained all the blood he’d gathered from slaughtering the members of the inner sect, and whatever blood he’d managed to recover from the sect master and his elders.

The blood pool responded violently to the blood. It refused to merge with it, and even expected a great deal of its power to eliminate every last trace of it. But in doing so, much of the negative emotions that were trapped in the blood pol were relieved.

“I can destroy you if you like,” Cha Ming continued. “I can grant you release if that is what you wish. But I can also turn you against your enemies; I feel that might suit you better. The Blood God Sect did this to you. Dao God Blood Seal did this to you. There’s as grudge connecting you and these people that can only be erased with their death.

“I don’t have the strength to help you now, but I guarantee you that one day, I will make things right. He then tossed out the Clear Sky Brush and had it float at the center of the pool. It waited there but did not initiate contact.

Many minutes passed before finally, a drop of blood shot out from the pool. It was followed by a thin stream that shot into the Clear Sky Brush. At first, only a trickle came, but as time passed, that trickle became a stream, and then a raging river.

The blood pool’s level began to lower foot by foot until stalagmites of crystalized blood poked through the surface. These were older than the foul blood from before, and contained the old spirit of the Blood Leaf Sect. This will of approval mingled with the contaminated and resentful blood, tempering its hatred and urging patience.

The blood was useless to Cha Ming. He had no way to wield it. Even with proper blood arts, he would not dare to. But he chose to keep it, if only to commemorate his promise of vengeance.