PtM 16 - Chapter 20: Return to Tribulant Yin

1/4 this week. Enjoy!

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In a random location in one of the safe areas of the Tribulant Yin Demiplane, a soft gray light flashed briefly, leaving behind a group of five cultivators. These were naturally Cha Ming and his companions. They were armed and ready for the worst, but luckily, nothing attacked just out of the portal.

“Any idea where we are, Huxian?” Cha Ming asked.

The fox took out a blue jade tablet and began tapping on runes to activate one of its many functions.

“Triangulating with the last markers I left… done.” Huxian said. He summoned a map from the tablet and showed it to them. “We’re here.”

“Spatial sensitivity,” Xing Tianlong said. “What a valuable tool. Petros?”

“Working on it,” Petros said. Cha Ming saw his face turn red as he fought against the seal Artemis had placed on his core and forcefully invoked one of his skills. Doing so took much longer than usual– a full minute as opposed to a single second – but the skill connected all five of them via karma and displayed a small map within their minds. “There. Done.”

“Rankers,” Wei Longshen said. “You can’t underestimate their specialized skillset. What concepts does that draw on, Petros? Karma, space, and a spiritual component, I’d wager?”

“I’m an ex-ranker, thank you very much,” Petros said. “And you’d be better thanking eight directions for getting us coordinates, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to link up the map function.”

“All cost was points for a good map with spatial coordinates,” Huxian said dismissively.

“It was a very good way to spend 15,000 points,” Cha Ming said.

“Agreed,” said Xing Tianlong.

“Hurray for useful abilities!” Huxian said, then summoned his void ship and jumped onto the prow. “Everyone aboard the Eight Directions Express!” They’d practiced this a few times before and were familiar with their positions. Petros hopped on the crow’s nest to scout, while Cha Ming kept an eye out up front from the prow. Wei Longshen had strong soul sensitivity, but since Petros had them covered for long-distance scouting, he focused on short-ranged detection. Huxian had to steer the ship, which left Xing Tianlong as their designated defender.

“Are we in a good location, or do we need to re-port?” Xing Tianlong asked.

“I think I see a few resource points we can check out,” Petros said. “There’s a dense yin river in that direction. I assume Wei Longshen will want to stop there first?”

“Yes please,” Wei Longshen said. Thus began their journey in the Tribulant Yin Demiplane.

Even with premium transpiration like Huxian’s new ship, it took them a week to reach the yin river in question. The Tribulant Yin Demiplane had many of these regions that overlapped with the yellow river, therefore destabilize space throughout the entire region.

This yin river was a bit more yellow than to the one Cha Ming and Huxian had encountered on their last trip. There were no floating islands this time, only a frightening density of souls and yin energy.

“Now, I know we talked about this Clear Sky, and its all good in theory, but do we really want to try this crazy plan of yours?” Petros asked as they disembarked from the void ship. “I’m quite attached to my life, you see, and my skillset isn’t exactly suited to this sort of situation.”

“Don’t worry about it, Petros,” Cha Ming said. “We’ll test the waters first, obviously.” He nodded to Xing Tianlong. “The first step relies on you, Tianlong. Let’s see how far in you can get us.”

Xing Tianlong nodded gravely. He summoned one of his two soul bound treasures, the Yang Phoenix Buckler. A spherical bubble of pure yang energy appeared around them. They then approached the yin river with caution, knowing full well that touching its deadly waters could prove fatal for some on their team.

There were two possible outcomes when introducing yang to strong yin environment: repulsion or attraction and annihilation. This first step was about determining which one would happen.

The shield hissed as it touched the gray mists of the yin river. “Steady…” Wei Longshen said.

“It’s fine,” Xing Tianlong said. He pushed them in a little further, and the yin spirits, uncomfortable with this new yang environment, pulled away from them, dragging most of the thick yin energy with them. “It worked!”

“I was really worried about what would happen,” Wei Longshen admitted. “Your yang energy is much stronger than the yin energy in the area, so it’s all good in theory, but I wouldn’t bet on you if a million suicidal yin spirits decided to take you down with them.”

“That’s why we tested it,” Xing Tianlong said stiffly. “And I suggest we hurry before I run out of energy.”

“You could last a few hours if you needed to,” Cha Ming said.

“But will that give you enough time?” Xing Tianlong asked.

It was a fair point, so they hurried towards the center of the river, only stopping to occasionally check how well the shield was holding.

“How many ghosts are you going to need for this treasure of yours?” Cha Ming asked.

“They’re not ghosts, they’re yin spirits,” Wei Longshen said.

“Is there are difference,” Cha Ming asked.

“Only to people who care, which you do not, so I won’t waste my breath,” Wei Longshen said.

Cha Ming ignored the man and began executing the next step of their plan. He mobilized his four creation runes and stretched out his Sky Canvas Domain Technique. The once-small area that he could keep under control had grown over the course of his training with Immortal White. Now, he could maintain the technique over the size of his normal domain, now 40 kilometers wide since he’d reached late rune gathering. Respectable, but still a long ways off from the 120 kilometers he could manage with his full creation domain.

The yin ghosts and the yin energy showed no reaction to his domain whatsoever. Nor should they. The domain contained no extra energy. What it did contain was laws of assembly that would allow Cha Ming’s techniques to persist.

He then summoned the Clear Sky Brush and had it orbit around his body. It glowed as he poured pre-prepared paint into it from the Clear Sky World. “Everyone be careful. I’ll start with a simple test.”

Cha Ming painted a single stroke onto the Sky Canvas Domain. It was a vertical stroke that ran about a hundred meters long but was only a few inches thick. It hissed and crackled as the yang lightning ink reacted with the yin ghosts that accidentally crashed into it in the first few moments when the yin spirits had yet to adjust their trajectory.

To external observers, this was only a single painted line. But within that line lay decades of effort and concepts Cha Ming had grown familiar with over the years. Some were mixed into the ink, but others could only be applied directly as he painted.

The brushstroke held for several seconds, then a minute, then three. It did not show any signs of dissipating despite the heavy yin energy. This was because his Sky Canvas Domain not only allowed his paintings to persist but also provided energy for them to repair themselves.

“I think that worked,” Huxian said.

“Good job,” Xing Tianlong said.

“This is going to save us a lot of trouble, assuming my idea pans out,” Cha Ming said. He proceeded with the next part of his crazy plan. The first thing he did was fold such that it created a 45 degree angle. He did it slowly and gave plenty of time for the flow of the yin river to adjust.

Once the painted line was completely folded over, Cha Ming painted two other lines to complete a pyramid shape, then proceeded to slowly paint thin walls to connect them, completing the structure. He then enclosed the area where they were located, effectively locking them in a diamond of yang lightning ink that tolerated no yin energy or yin ghosts.

Four of them remained inside, while Wei Longshen remained outside. Cha Ming painted three points of lightning ink from the safety of the enclosure. They flew out to the stagnant yin river behind what was essentially a large wind break. “If you could draw on yin spirits and yin qi from all directions, how much could you handle safely?” he asked Wei Longshen.

“About 200 meters in every direction,” Wei Longshen answered.

Cha Ming nodded and began slowly expanding these three points in spherical shapes, eventually closing them off such that the yin spirits and yin energy inside could no longer escape.

“Will maintaining these walls be a problem?” Wei Longshen asked Cha Ming.

“No, this is definitely manageable,” Cha Ming said. “The trick is to combine features to make them easier to control. Right now, I’m controlling our shield and these three spheres. It’s not so spiritually taxing.”

“Then it’s my turn, I guess.” The soul piper flew towards one of the lightning spheres, which Cha Ming opened just enough for him to enter before closing it.

Wei Longshen had come to refine a treasure, and this treasure was a memorial tablet the size of his forearm. It was made of glassy obsidian stone, though most of the front face of the tablet had been sanded down to form an area where one could safely chisel out names.

Few yin spirits would willing enter such a tablet, but that was no problem since he was, after all, a soul piper. He began to play a melody that provoked great longing in the yin spirits for a home. The nearest home happened to be the memorial tablet.

Spirits began rushing into the tablet one after another, and alongside them came yin energy. A tiny mark appeared on the tablet every time a soul moved in. “It’s working!” Wei Longshen called out as he continued playing. “The other spirits aren’t able to force their way in the sphere, as predicted!”

Cha Ming inspected the Wei Longshen’s compartment and confirmed that this was indeed the case. The ghosts outside the sphere were attracted to the melody, but they feared the yang lightning ink more than they craved a place to call home. “Well. That should save us a few months of effort, at least.”

When Wei Longshen finished harvesting one compartment, Cha Ming opened up the next. He also created a channel through the yang lighting prison sphere that allowed yin spirits and yin energy to trickle in without breaking it.

If Wei Longshen were to do this normally, all the spirits in the range of his melody would be drawn towards him. This was difficult to control, so he would have needed to stay at the very edge of the yin river and way for spirits to trickle in.

This way, Wei Longshen could harvest stronger spirits without worrying that he’d bitten off more than he could chew. He could gather spirits from the center of the river without having the entire river rush towards him all at once.

“You’ve gotta admit though, that tablet is supercreepy,” Huxian said.

Cha Ming looked over and was surprised to see that Huxian had constructed a platform by folding space, and had also opened up a portal to his portable kitchen. In truth, if Cha Ming’s painting skills weren’t up to the challenge, Huxian’s spatial bending abilities were the fallback plan. “How did you… Never mind. What are you making? Sandwiches?”

“And soup!” Huxian said. “And coffee!”

“Of course there’s coffee,” Cha Ming said, all the while subconsciously accepting a cup and taking a sip.

“It’s a memorial tablet, not a soul flag,” Xing Tianlong said, taking a seat at the table and accepting a sandwich. He was very traditional when it came to food, but sandwiches were a big exception.

Huxian shrugged. “You’re still trapping souls. Petros, you want one of these?”

“I’ll take an egg salad sandwich,” Petros said, taking a seat. “And coffee.”

“These souls have remained stagnant in this secret realm for millennia,” Xing Tianlong continue. “Really, he’s doing them a favor.”

“By enslaving them to fight for him?” Cha Ming said. “If not for them already being dead, and probably not sentient, I’d consider stopping him.”

“It really is different,” Xing Tianlong said, shaking his head. “Look. We’re not angelic cultivators like you are, despite being part of the angelic faction, so I can see why you’d have hang-ups. But this is not a soul flag. Soul flags are what devilish cultivators make to forcefully harvest souls from living victims, along with their resentment. Think about it – if Wei Longshen were performing an deed in crafting this treasure right now, would he not be accumulating sin?”

Cha Ming looked over to Wei Longshen and saw that he wasn’t. “But how is it different?”

Xing Tianlong took a bite of his sandwich before answering. “Is this grilled rainbow salmon? Gathered from a real rainbow?”

“Sure is!” Huxian said. He handed another plate to Cha Ming. “But no rainbow salmon for Mr. No Fun.”

“I’m fine with that,” Cha Ming said.

Xing Tianlong took another bite and nodded appreciatively. “This is very good. I can definitely get behind eating like this during our stay. I see why the food budget was so high now. Now where was I? Ah yes. Memorial tablets. It all comes down to intent, Clear Sky. That’s how it’s different.

“Soul pipers aren’t exactly a reputable lot, but that’s mostly because many of them follow the devilish path. The devilish path involves killing a lot of people, sometimes entire cities, then harvesting their souls forcibly. They’ll then use the souls recklessly, sometimes having them detonate and other times directly devouring them.

“Longshen follows the orthodox path. It’s not a saintly path, but a transaction. He provides a service to the souls in the form of soul ferrying. He does so by finding pockets in the universe that the yellow river has trouble accessing and harvests these souls to aid in their reincarnation.

“When a soul piper of Wei Longshen’s lineage captures these souls, they form a contract with them. The bound souls must serve the soul piper until the piper dies, at which point they will be released. The soul piper cannot consume them or order them to self destruct. And unlike a soul flag, the memorial tablet preserves the souls to reduce fragmentation. It also marks the souls such that they are easier to locate by the yellow river.”

“And Yama is fine with this?” Cha Ming asked.

“Obviously,” Huxian said. “Look, I said it was creepy, not evil. It’s obviously not evil. Anyway, Cha Ming, Yama obviously approves of this. Otherwise we’d know, because he gets super upset whenever anyone infringes on his soul-ferrying monopoly.”

“I believe Longshen mentioned a soul flood happening in the past,” Xing Tianlong said. “Yama needed help at the time clearing out all the souls out from the mortal and transcendent planes and demi planes. At first, he trained them directly, but then he began issuing contracts. Eventually, people realized how useful an occupation it was, so all he had to do was publicize the profession and set a standard contract.”

“Wait,” Cha Ming said. “Are you saying he dealt with a problem in his company by first hiring full time employees, then outsourcing it, and finally turning it into a non-profit volunteer organization?”

Both Tianlong and Petros seemed confused, but Huxian understood where he was coming from. “Yep. That’s totally what he did.”

“Genius,” Cha Ming said.

They stayed in the yin river for two weeks, and in that time, Wei Longshen refined the first two stages of his memorial tablet. Only then did he stop. “I’m afraid I can’t continue refining this treasure with the calibre of these yin spirits,” Wei Longshen said. He eyed the center of the river cautiously. “Should we keep inward? Maybe we could find a few stronger entities.”

Thus began the very careful migration of the pyramid that shielded them from the bulk of the yin river’s turbulence, as well as the three refillable lightning prison spheres. They didn’t dare move either the spheres or their shelter too quickly.

They migrated for a day before Wei Longshen began harvesting once again. The repeated this over and over again for a bout a week, until Petros suddenly shouted out a warning. “Stop!” he said, drawing everyone’s attention. And since this had been negotiated before they’d set out, everyone did as they’d been told.

“Is there a problem?” Cha Ming asked.

“You can’t keep travelling inward,” Petros said. “It’s too dangerous.”

“What’s got you worried?” Xing Tianlong asked.

“It’s only my intuition, so I don’t know,” Petros said. “All I know is that I don’t dare.”

“Why don’t I scout this out,” Huxian said. He tossed out a few dozen crystalline spheres and injected his demonic energy into them. They wormed their way out of Cha Ming’s lighting prison and made their way towards the center.

Nothing of note was found, but in Cha Ming’s experience, some things didn’t reveal themselves until it was too late. Also, Petros might be weak, but he was a cultivator. Even Xing Tianlong, who was often at odds with Petros and resented his inclusion, wouldn’t ignore his instincts.

They decided to take it very slowly, and for the first ten minutes, nothing happened. Then, out of nowhere, Cha Ming’s intuition began screaming at him to retreat.

He hastily began to disassemble the lightning sphere closest to the center, pulling the yang lightning ink directly into the Clear Sky World for later use. No sooner did he peel back the first half of the sphere did a sudden surge of yin energy and powerful yin spirits blast towards them.

“I’m abandoning the rest of it!” Cha Ming said decisively. His heart bled as the half speed collapsed. It fell to the ground like rain as the Sky Canvas domain shrank, pouring onto the nearest yin spirits and yin energy, resulting in mutual destruction. Fortunately, two of the spherical prisons were unharmed, as was their own personal shield.

“I think we’re done here,” Cha Ming said as he began pulling back the rest of his ink. “How far did your treasure get along Longshen?”

“I barely managed to bring it to third rank,” Wei Longshen said. “It’s a passable treasure, and powerful enough to accept more aggressive refining in the future.”

“Now correct me if I’m wrong on this, Longshen,” Huxian said. “Do we or do we not have a huge ghost army you can summon now.”

“That’s a fairly close approximation,” Wei Longshen said. “Though I’d rather just use the yin energy it naturally produces to cultivate.”

“Giant ghost army,” Huxian said, rubbing his hands. “We can ask them if they remember their oaths whenever we call them into battle, Cha Ming!” Wei Longshen and Xing Tianlong exchanged worried looks, but Cha Ming simply facepalmed at the reference.

Sine travelling inward was now out of the question, it was Huxian’s turn up next. They retreated out of the river using Xing Tianlong’s Yang Phoenix Buckler, and Huxian build them a void tunnel to the other side of the yin river.

Not far away from them was a forest. It was similar to the one they’d encountered on their first go around in the Tribulant Yin Demiplane. Except this time, they were armed and ready, and the powerful specter guarding it didn’t stand a chance. They eighteen pits of yin spirits and yin energy demarcating the forest’s boundary became food for Wei Longshen’s treasure, after which the rest of them stripped the forest and the cave beneath it like a swarm of locusts.