PtM 17 - Chapter 5: Four Seasons of the Blood Leaf

3/3 this week.

The Clear Sky World had never stopped growing ever since its merger with his own inner world. And as the only landmass that could accommodate life in the Clear Sky World, the Jade Moon Demiplane had grown to several times its original size.

It didn’t take long all for Cha Ming to clear out a plot of land and put-up boundaries around his own alchemical crops and garden. And since the Unbroken Branch Sect mostly cultivated the wood element, he split off a segment of his garden for them to mind. The nymphs of Jade Moon Garden had grown bored. A bit of human company might be just what they needed.

Like the Tribulant Yin Demiplane, the Jade Moon Demiplane was sorely lacking in key elements. As such, it could not nurture life in the long term. At most, it could preserve the existence of the Unbroken Branch Sect.

Food was not a problem, since Cha Ming had ultimate control of the realm. It took little effort on Cha Ming’s part to plant crops and supplement their living area with transcendent crystals to better emulate the Chasewind Plane’s natural energies.

An hour later Cha Ming was on the way to his next destination, the Blood Leaf Sect. Since he had confirmed that at least a portion of their members were up to no good, it was necessary to determine to what extent, and how this involved the Blood God Sect and its subsidiary Tier 2 sects.

Cha Ming used Seventy-Two Transformations to assume the guise of an outer sect disciple. The outer sect was the face of the Blood Leaf Sect, as it managed most of the sect’s trade and disciple recruitment.

The cultivators of the outer sect very friendly and patriotic. They worked hard to increase their cultivation and spent no small amount of time training their combat arts in preparation for the next fiend outbreak.

Cha Ming spent the next few days familiarizing himself with the Blood Leaf Sect and forging fast friendships. It was only on the third day that he heard a rumor about disappearing disciples, but these people were quickly admonished. It was a well-known fact that the outer sect experienced a lot of training incidents, and often lost members when fighting against the fiendish invaders.

Having learned all there as to learn in the outer sect, Cha Ming’s persona also perished from a training incident. He captured a disciple who’d just been admitted to the inner sect and took his place.

The inner sect was a dark place compared to the outer sect. He discovered that anyone who spent more than a few months in the inner sect became merciless and bloodthirsty. Those who survived that is.

For the most part, there isn’t anything wrong with the Blood Leaf Sect’s cultivation arts, Cha Ming thought one evening as he reviewed the information he’d obtained. The orthodox way to cultivate the Path of the Bloody Leaf is to feed one’s fresh blood to saplings and spur the growth of blood leaves. These leaves are an excellent training supplement and can also be used to cultivate the blood leaf sect’s four great arts, Blooming Spring, Thriving Summer, Withering Fall, and Frozen Winter.

It's only in recent years that these arts have been twisted. They’ve taken to feeding their saplings the resentful blood of the unwilling instead of their own life’s blood. Those who can’t afford blood from the sect’s blood pool turn to outer sect disciples as a source of unwilling blood. As long as the matter is sufficiently covered up, the elders turn a blind eye.

The way in which they did so varied. Some used a blood refining method similar to the Blood God Sect, while others used living hosts to catalyze the growth of their saplings. These poor outer sect members lay half-buried in soil. The tree roots piercing through their bodies to drain their blood also preserved their lives, thereby prolonging their suffering.

Cha Ming was disgusted by either practice. Openly admitted this fact. This prompted a sect elder to assign a punitive task to Cha Ming, which was why he found himself near the elders quarters the day after his admittance.

A cruel looking guard stopped Cha Ming before a blood-stained metal door. “Mission slip,” the guard said.

Cha Ming had half a mind to kill the man on the spot given the sinful aura on his person but refrained form doing so. He handed the guard a bamboo slip and introduced himself. “I am a new arrival to the inner sect, and Elder Blood Fern instructed me to go down to the prison cells for clean-up duty,” he wore an earnest and innocent expression. “I am happy to have been given this opportunity.”

The prison guard couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I can see why he sent you here all right.” He unlocked the door and pulled it open. A bloody wind wafted out of the prison, causing Cha Ming gag.

“I… I don’t think –“

“In you go!” the guard said, shoving him down a steep spiral staircase.

Cha Ming was only a weak cultivator at the peak of rune carving. His persona had never cultivated his body, so he broke an arm on the way down.

The guard at the entrance ignored his screams. “Don’t come out until your time is up, and don’t you dare mess up the collection. In three days, I’ll come and find you. If you’re still alive, that is.”

After confirming that he guard was no longer watching him, Cha Ming picked himself up, brushed off his robes and calmly walked down the stairs. His arm had already mended, and the paleness on his face had vanished.

The prison reeked of blood and death and something sinister. It caused all sorts of emotions to stir inside Cha Ming, but he kept them under lock and key.

“Mission jade,” said a lazy guard when he arrived. He yelped as Cha Ming pressed his hand to his face and soul searched them before throwing his corpse and moving onto the next one.

“Hey, what are you – “ two serpent-like wrappings of runic binding emerged from Cha Ming’s robes and disabled the last four guards. He soul searched them as well to confirm a few details before moving deeper into the prison.

The prison was large could easily hold a thousand prisoners. There were very few individual cells, as most prisoners were kept chained to pillars of white stone. Each one had hooks pierced into their flesh that let out a steady flow of high-quality blood into troughs that led to the back of the prison.

Seeing these prisoners and their terrible condition pushed Cha Ming over the edge. The tripartite balance between his auras broke as he lost control over his Aura of Iridescence. It poured into the blood in the troughs and into the corpses still chained to their pillars, destroying them, bone and all.

There was no covering up what he’d done here. Since that was the case, Cha Ming decided to directly save the remaining prisoners. He sent out Yin Yang Spirit Threading Needles into these prisoners’ acupoints to heal the worst of their injuries and dismantled their restraints.

These people were broken. Their bodies were half dead, and their minds were even worse off. But he had seen worse cases pull through, so he pulled each of them into the Clear Sky World, into residences tended by members of the Unbroken Branch Sect at his instruction.

One of his incarnations accompanied these refugees and coordinated with Sect Master Unbroken to care for them. He mixed up medicines for the worst cases but was careful to conserve most of his strength.

Not all prisoners were chained to pillars. Some were in simple cells and were relatively well treated. Cha Ming took most of them into the Clear Sky World but refused to take in some of the more vicious-looking individuals.

One such cultivator rammed up against his cell bars and shot Cha Ming a bloody grin. Cha Ming took one look at the man and his prison cell, saw that his cell mate was currently lacking a large piece of flesh where his throat should have been, and directly shot a Yin-Yang Spirit Threading Needle into the man’s forehead, destroying his spiritual sea.

Cha Ming’s time was limited, so he directly killed off the worst of these prisoners. Since those he abandoned would likely be integrated and killed, he took in the rest but placed them under observation.

Once finished, he moved to a room at the back of the prison that the blood of a thousand prisoners flowed towards. The resentment in the prison was thickest here. There were four prison cells in the room, and inside each sat four elderly cultivators. A vicious gleam appeared in their eyes as soon as Cha Ming walked into the room.

Unlike the other prisoners, these four old cultivators were perfectly healthy. And to Cha Ming’s surprise, they weren’t weak. All four of them were initial law stitching cultivators and had even cultivated their bodies to some extent.

It was for this reason that their bodies still flush with vitality despite the fact that each of them was covered in several layers of golden chains that locked them in place. Their arms and their wrists were affixed with blade-covered manacles that promoted bleeding by preventing blood coagulation.

“You must be the former leadership of the Blood Leaf Sect,” Cha Ming said, changing his appearance. He let out his three auras and revealed two pairs of angelic wings. The first pair was brilliant and full of energy, but the second one was dull, and had not yet recovered.  .

“Tricks,” one of the four said.

“It must be,” another agreed. “They’ve tried this approach many times before. Let us resist as we always have.”

The four simultaneously released a bloody aura that crushed down on Cha Ming. He let out a surprised grunt his blood froze in his veins and his qi refused to circulate.

“I’m not… your enemy…” Cha Ming said through gritted teeth. He groaned as the four bloody auras merged to form a bloody four-colored hand that pressed down on his own three-colored aura. And because of the imbalance in his aura of iridescence, he lost out in the exchange.

The four-colored hand burned with four temperatures that cycled between extremes. Yet it was not these temperatures that attacked Cha Ming’s body but the cycle itself. His body simultaneously withered and flourished, and these conflicting energies ate away at Cha Ming’s body. If he were a Daoist, he’d already be dead.

The problem lays with my emotions, Cha Ming thought. I’ve been moody and angry ever since coming to this region. In the prison, I lost control of my iridescence. I need to suppress to escape. This time, all three auras were in agreement. His Aura of Iridescence latched onto his growing fear and used it as an anchor to suppress itself, restoring the tripartite balance.

Cha Ming’s emotions returned to normal. He used his three auras to push away the four-colored hand and stood back up. He edged towards the exit. Since they were prisoners, range was a problem. As long as he left the room, they would be defeated.

“Don’t let him escape! Old Third, undo your first shackle!” The strongest of the four voices instructed. There was a snapping sound as one of the taunt chains holding one of them down snapped apart. This ‘Old Third’ still couldn’t’ move, but the pressure he emanated doubled.

This time, Cha Ming was prepared. He absorbed the brunt of the impact with his body. “He’s too strong,” The most powerful elder said. “I’ll need to break some shackles but doing so will alert the sect master.”

“Who cares about that old fart, Old First?” the one known as Old Third said. “This is clearly an elite disciple. Look at his savagery. Look at all that hatred. Does he think putting on a pair of wings will make any difference?”

The man known as Old First sighed. He had the most chains among all of them, and three of them snapped consecutively. The bloody aura intensified, and a law projection leaked through. It was weak, since the shackles were inhibiting him, but it was a law projection nonetheless.

“Wither!” the old man said in a cold voice. “Bloody leaves will fall from the sky. Each leaf is a year, and for every one that falls, you will lose a year from your lifespan!”

Cha Ming’s expression turned serious as corporeal leaves manifested above him. The law projection was weaker than it should be, so each leaf only took a month, but it was still a rare time technique. And he couldn’t defend against it!

As he contemplated how to break this strange law projection, the second elder, who’d yet to speak, did so now. His soul began to burn with an intense light as two of his chains shattered. “Thrive!” he said with a warm voice. “Bloody leaves will blot out the sky. Your heart burn with summer’s heat and weigh you down with countless worries!”

Old Third jumped in immediately afterward. “Die!” said elder. “Bloody leaves cover the earth. Your heart will grow cold and your bones will freeze as the last of your life leaves you.”

“Grow,” the fourth elder said. “Bloody leaves will sprout from your skin. Your blood boil and your bones will weaken to give life to a new generation.”

The four law projections crushed down on Cha Ming and merged with the bloody aura. His body could barely move, making any weapons he wielded useless.

He summoned the Clear Sky Brush, but any paintings it produced were frozen and dead. The four seasons had completely overpowered his qi, preventing him from granting life to any of his paintings.

Only his spirit remained relatively free, and only because he’d managed to resist their auras.

Since they’re able to restrain me with their auras, I should be able to do the same to them by pushing back, Cha Ming thought. The problem is that my auras refuse to cooperate. A balance had been struck, but it was constantly on the verge of breaking apart. Emotions and heartlessness did not easily mix.

But Cha Ming decided it was worth a try. He communicated with his auras and made his intentions known. His Savage Deity Aura informed him that only by forcing out Iridescence could they escape. Emotions were not needed. Heartlessness was best when it came to survival.

Iridescence bubbled with fury in response. How dare his Savage Deity Aura say such a thing? Emotions were important. Cha Ming didn’t want to go back to the dull, emotionless life he knew, di he? Besides, there was more to life than fighting. Heartlessness was at best a temporary necessity. In the long term, emotions were best.

Fortunately, his Aura of Inspiration was indifferent. It could go either way in this conflict. But it did inform Cha Ming that choosing one or the other would affects its nature. If he chose Iridescence, it would become warmer. If he chose Savagery, it would take on darker characteristics.

The problem was that Cha Ming wanted all three of them. He wanted a balance. Unfortunately, the only proper balance he’d managed to find was when he’d used his three auras to improvise Savage Deity Crush and motivate the defenders of Soaring City.

As Cha Ming mulled this over, the four laws continued their onslaught. Cha Ming’s body was freezing and withering and getting crushed by a mass of leaves. His blood was drained several times over, generating quite a few ten-colored leaves in the process.

“What strange blood,” the elderly woman said. “Is he really from our sect?”

“Who cares?” Old Third said. “If he’s here, he’s with them. He should clearly perish.” Cha Ming would have loved to correct them, but unfortunately his body was completely paralyzed.

Hope, Cha Ming thought to himself. Inspiration. If I can make hope and inspiration more dominant, I should be able to keep the other two emotions in check. When he thought about this, he remembered the battlefield near soaring city, and feelings he couldn’t put into words.

At the same time, he thought of the mortals and cultivators living in the Blood Rock Kingdom. They zealously supported the Blood God Sect. Why was that? It wasn’t just because of surging emotions. It was because of the situation. They were desperate, and they needed a rope to grasp. The Blood God Sect had delivered that rope and given their life hope and meaning.

Hope… is about making the impossible possible, Cha Ming thought. It’s about going against the odds and turning defeat into victory. If I can’t merge these auras, I will be defeated. So I will use this moment for my personal epiphany.

His auras did not wish to merge, and in a sense, they represented three parts of his own self. One part of his personality was cold heartless and wanted nothing more than to survive and protect itself. Another part wanted experience everything life had to offer.

He did not need them to merge completely.

He wouldn’t want to live life without either of them.

Sometimes, he needed one without the other. And sometimes, in this situation, for example, he needed both together. They needed to cooperate, because doing otherwise would run counter to both their intentions.

He wasn’t asking for full fusion. Thirty percent should be more than enough. He’d work on the rest later.

Moreover… he sensed that this was a true turning point. When all three auras of his auras merged, his soul would be fully healed and would also qualify to break through. In this way, he wasn’t facing a disaster. He was facing an opportunity!

The Seed of Inspiration inside his spiritual sea mulled these inner thoughts, until finally, it pulsed in approval. The seed grew until it was roughly the same size as the others and pushed them aside to occupy a third of the space in his spiritual sea.

This small shift changed the nature of Cha Ming’s aura. It stabilized his savagery and his strong emotions. And thanks to this stability, his auras no lingered needed to waste energy. They grew several times stronger.

Cha Ming took advantage of this surge in strength and pushed out with all his strength, forcing back their bloody aura. It was histurn to suppress them. Their law projections weakened.

“We need to go all out, or this will all have been a waste!” Old First shouted. A few more chains snapped one each of the elders. The spat-out blood, further empowering their domains, and the pressure on Cha Ming increased several-fold once again.

The hand generated by their auras squeezed down on Cha Ming’s mixed auras. But Cha Ming wasn’t worried. In fact, he welcomed the pressure. He didn’t just want stability. He wanted fusion!

Hope was something all three of his auras could get behind. It appealed to survival and personal strength, and it appealed to his personal happiness. Where there was hope, heartlessness and emotions need not conflict. Cha Ming voluntarily retracted his auras and used the pressure to force all three aura seeds together at the center of his spiritual sea.

The three aura seeds vanished, producing a fourth aura seed that was much larger than the original three. It contained three unmixed colors, but those colors overlapped by thirty percent.

The three partitions in Cha Ming’s spiritual sea did not disappear, but their boundaries expanded, creating places where mixtures of two and sometimes three auras existed.

Memories that his Savage Deity Aura had kept suppressed flooded into his mind. He remembered great joy, as well as great pain. But as much as he wanted to sift through these emotions, he didn’t have time to process them. To obtain this opportunity, he needed to survive. He needed to win!

Hope… is resistance! Hope is change! The three-colored seed flashed with a violent light that tore apart the bloody hand. It forced back the bloody aura into the four elders, then suppressed them with an angry aura, a kind aura, an aura filled with cold calculation.

With the suppression gone, defeating the four elders was simple. He summoned his half-finished destruction domain and used All-Heaven’s Eye to find the flaws in the four law projections, then began peeling them apart.

“Impossible!” the third elder shouted.

“Interesting,” the second elder said.

“I really don’t think he’s one of ours,” the fourth elder said.

As for the first elder, he sighed. “It seems us four elders have embarrassed ourselves in front of the junior generation.” He pulled back his law projection and instructed the others to do the same. “Just tell us why you are here and we will listen to what you have to say. You have earned that much, at least.”

Cha Ming considered having a conversation, but he could sense that things their altercation had not gone unnoticed. Assuming what the first elder had said was true, the sect master and the other elders would be arriving any minute.

“I think actions sometimes speak louder than words,” Cha Ming said to the four of them. He gathered his domain and spoke a single word. “Shatter!”