PtM Book 16 - Chapter 6: Supremacy and Sacrifice

Today will be a four chapter week. 1/4. Enjoy!

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Three weeks ago.

Only a week had passed since Huxian’s arrival in the Heartforge Realm, and things were not going well. Baleful Vision, the overly friendly paper tiger clansman, had given up on recruiting him, which was good. But most of the ones who remained weren’t good company, which was bad.

By now, most of the demons had formed cliques, not least because someone had discovered that you could enter the Path of Battle with a group of five. The ratio of successes versus failures had gone up dramatically, but the statistics were still rather grim: Only a third of those who challenged the Path of Battle survived, and that number was going down as the stronger teams left the trial grounds.

By the time the first week finished, twenty percent of the original three thousand demons had either died in the trial or passed it. Those that remained no longer had the courage to proceed. Days went by without a single demon passing through any of the three arches, which was a problem, in Huxian’s opinion. There had to be at time limit.

So it was that after the tenth day passed, a claw tore through the sky, revealing a massive humanoid made of fire. It floated through the rift and looked down upon the assembled demons with contempt.

“Heartforge Spirit,” Huxian whispered, as did a few others. It was a creature of mystery, and no one knew whether it was a demon, an elemental, or a spirit. All who looked upon it perceived flames of two opposing colors, like red and blue, jade and ochre, or black and white.

“We invited three thousand demons into the Heartforge Realm,” the Heartforge Spirit said in a booming voice. “Or so I thought. Demons are brave, but the lot of you cowards.” The demons shifted uncomfortably but did not move or answer. The statement wasn’t inaccurate. “One month,” it continued. “That is the time limit. Each of you must choose a path by then. And if you don’t?” The elemental grinned.

A grim silence filled the demi plane. Most of them had already suspected the deadline and known the cost of failure in their hearts.

But what were they to do? They’d been dropped here with no information and no context to rely on. “Can we at least obtain clarification on each of the paths?” one demon, an elephant of the sun-bearer bloodline asked.

“Of course,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “I would have descended earlier, but then not a single demon chose to challenge the other two arches, so I grew angry.” It held out its hand at the first trial. “The Path of Battle is the most straightforward. As demons, you are no strangers to it. You were born to fight, and have a special aversion to fiends, the antithesis of your nature. You can participate as an individual or in teams of up to five, and you will face four waves with increasing strength. Should you survive, this will prove that your combat prowess is sufficient for entry into the Heartforge Realm, where heroes are made and legends are born.”

It then gestured to the middle path. “The Path of Supremacy is a difficult one. Those who challenge must choose an aspect in which they are unmatched. The others present will be given the opportunity to challenge them, and in the end, a single demon will prevail.”

Huxian immediately spotted the trap. In theory, this trial could be passed by many demons without casualties. The problem was that demons were naturally competitive and proud.

And predictably, someone decided that now was the time to prove their worth. “I choose to enter the Path of Supremacy!” a demon shouted. She zipped towards the path and stopped in front of it. “Heartforge Spirit, is this allowed?”

“It is,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “In which aspect do you claim supremacy?”

“Among us, there is not a single demon who can best me in speed,” the demon said confidently.

The Heartforge spirit nodded. “You are platinum spotted wind leopard with an emperor-grade bloodline. Speed is a very good choice.” He looked over the assembled demons. “Does everyone accept her claim to be the fastest among you, or will anyone vie for the title of supreme in speed?”

Several demons stood up almost immediately. The first one was a narrow-eyed demon with golden plumage. He bore the glinting sunhawk king bloodline. It was a less powerful a bloodline than the initiator of this trial, but in terms of sheer unidirectional speed, it was definitely superior.

The second challenger was a phantom chaser beast with a king level bloodline. Like Mr. Mountain, his body was ethereal, which enabled him to split apart and avoid obstacles. It was strictly slower than the others, but if there were obstacles in this competition, it could eke out a victory.

Then came an avian demon, and a variant of the thundercat emperor bloodline. The fifth challenger was a god beast like Huxian, a rare heavenwind fox, a creature that could outrun any wind in existence.

“Would anyone else like to challenge her claim?” the Heartforge Spirit asked. Huxian was tempted, but since teleportation wasn’t speed, strictly speaking, he decided not to. But a demon of the thieving void mouse lineage clearly thought otherwise and decided to participate at the last minute.

A battlefield suddenly appeared, as did instructions that vanished almost immediately. Everything went so quickly that most couldn’t even perceive what was happening.

But not the seven competitors – they were fast and took off after the instructions were up for less than half a second.

As Huxian had predicted, the void mouse was the slowest of them. His teleportation had clearly been disabled for this trial.

Each of the participants had started at equidistant points on a heptagram. There were 100 winged spheres flitting about the playing like clueless hummingbirds. They flew at most twenty meters above ground and were difficult to catch – the one who caught the most by the end of the trial would be declared the winner.

It was a simple competition that tested all manners of speed, including reaction speed, hand speed, and physical movement speed.

The battlefield was also filled with obstacles, which would be used to test maneuvering speed, and steps and walls and moving blades and traps. Those who did not control their speed perfectly might see themselves run into a wall, or worse, a tornado of spinning blades.

Three of the participants took the lead: the platinum spotted leopard, the glinting sun hawk, and the heavenwind fox. The spotted leopard was fast and had good turning capabilities, while the glinting sun hawk had high unidirectional speed and aerial maneuvering. The heavenwind fox was a mixture of both, and it was hard to tell who would pull ahead.

One of the participants was a twin-headed thunder eagle. If this were a normal battle, it would have had the advantage. Unfortunately, like the void mouse, the eagle’s naturally splitting ability was restricted, just like the phantom chaser incorporeal nature.

The battle took all of seventeen seconds, including the time it took to read the instructions. The heavenwind fox caught the last orb a third of a second before the platinum spotted leopard, making her total one orb higher than her next strongest competitor.

“Sir Heartforge!” the void mouse shouted angrily when the trial ended. “This is simply unfair! My abilities were locked down!”

The Heartforge Spirit looked at him coldly. “If this were a battle for supremacy in teleportation, the opposite restriction would have been placed. Tell me, little mouse, why did you have to insist on competing in speed, when clearly you are quite lacking in that department?”

“I…”

“The contest is over,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “Apologies, but only one can claim to be supreme in any aspect.” It waved its arm, and to everyone’s horror, black and white fire consumed the remaining six participants.  “Congratulations to the victor. You have obtained entry into the Heartforge Realm.” There was another flash of black and white, and then, she too was gone. “Does anyone else wish to walk the Path of Supremacy?”

For a time, no one spoke. Everything had happened so quickly. One minute they were cheering and guessing at the rules, and another, six superior demons were dead.

Huxian wanted to hear about the other trial, but alas, demons were vain creatures. A member of the ox clan stepped up. He was a Stone Titan Ox, a God Beast just like Huxian was. “I chose to walk the path of Supremacy. I claim to wield supreme strength!”

The Heartforge Spirit nodded. “Very well. Those who wish to challenge him, please step forward.”

***

In the end, an entire fifth of those assembled attempted the path of supremacy. Out of them, only a quarter survived. There was only a single instance of a demon passing through uncontested – a Five Supreme Poisons Scorpion with an imperial bloodline.

In this case, at least, the contestants were fortune. There existed a ranking for poisonous creatures that demons on their level would be aware of. And while this particular bloodline was not the most poisonous in existence, any competitors had not been invited to the Heartforge Realm this time around.

So far, 600 demons had entered the path of battle with 300 surviving. Around the same number had challenged the Path of Supremacy, with around 150 surviving. No one else was able to challenge the path of supremacy after that, however, because ‘Supreme at encasing creatures in ice for three seconds’ was too specific, and instead fell under the more general categories of ‘Supreme at Freezing’ and ‘Supreme at Restricting Movement’.

Many times, Huxian considered joining one of the battles, but ultimately decided against it. The Path of Battle was risky for him, since he could not use all his abilities to their fullest, and the Path of Supremacy was not suitable for him either. If he had his inheritance, competing in spatial manipulation or teleportation wouldn’t have been a problem. But without it, he had all the power, and even the knowledge of his ancestors, but did not possess the essence to catalyse and mobilize his energy properly. He lacked authority, which was something everyone else had but him.

“Around a third of those destined to enter the Heartforge Realm have already entered,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “Since no one else wishes to enter the Path of Supremacy, I will now explain the Path of Sacrifice.

The darkest of the three paths was magnified for everyone to see, and the Heartforge Realm grinned wickedly as it explained. “It is not only the strong that are accepted in the Heartforge Realm,” it said. “There is also a place for the determined. In the Heartforge Realm, there will be limitless opportunities to increase your strength, so not everyone need start from a position of power.

“Those who embark on the path of sacrifice must walk it to the end. There is no turning back. To advance, one must sacrifice something of sufficient worth. Treasures or monetary items are not accepted.”

“What qualifies as an acceptable sacrifice?” one brave demon asked.

The Heartforge Spirit’s laugh raised hackles. “It varies from individual to individual. There is an absolute component to value and a relative one.” The spirit then looked at the assembled demons, who now had a healthy fear of this strange new path. Huxian noticed its gaze lingering on him momentarily and frowned. It was almost like it was trying to tell him something.

“I wonder who’ll go first,” Huxian said, this time to a new group of companions. Now that most of the demons had given up on battle and supremacy, only the runts of the litter were left. And some of them were pretty interesting to hang out with.

“Probably one of my kind again,” a woman said. She a tall ox demon with jade-white horns and jade-white hair. The redness in her eyes and the large battle axe at her back screamed berserker.

“Hm, same,” another said. She was a lazy-looking woman with short golden hair. She wore the robe equivalent of sweatpants and was currently reclining on a beany she’d gotten from heavens knew where, munching on freshly roasted sunflower seeds, courtesy of Huxian.

These two were most of the reason Huxian had chosen to linger here instead of elsewhere. Both of them were from the Inkwell Plane – he could tell by their smell. Both of their bloodlines were powerful but so impure that without any outside intervention, they would never clear the Heartforge Trials.

The one called Jadefall was of the jade bull king bloodline. It didn’t sound very impressive, but Huxian knew that the Jade Bull King’s ancestor was the Hell-Crushing Devil-Ox, a Godbeast like he was. Jadefall had a very short temper, and she’d almost been banned for beating up after they called her a cow.

The lazier one went by the name Wu. No other names. No lordly titles because she hadn’t bothered to find one. She was the laziest person Huxian had ever met. She also only had a single ability and loathed hand to hand combat.

Normally, he wouldn’t bothered, but that single ability happened to be a ridiculously powerful ability called Xuanwu Shield. That meant that she had trace amounts of the Xuanwu Turtle King bloodline in her body, which in turn happened to be a descendent of the Heaven-Bearing Xuanwu Turtle.

In the end, it was just as Jadefall predicted. A king-level member of the ox clan stepped forward. “I may not be the strongest or the fastest, and I might not be the bravest, but there is nothing that I am not willing to sacrifice in pursuit of greater power.”

“We shall see,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “Step onto the path.” It was the shortest path among the three, but it gave everyone present including Huxian the willies. “Tell me, Lord Short-Horn: What will you sacrifice to enter the Heartforge realm?”

“My bloodline!” Short-Horn said decisively. Everyone gasped in unison. To give up an arm or a horn or something was within the realm of expectations, but one’s bloodline? That meant that he would need to recover it or find another bloodline if he ever wanted to ascend.

“A king level bloodline is acceptable,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “To whom will you sacrifice it to?”

The words took Lord Shorn Horn by surprise. His face lit up. “I will sacrifice my bloodline to Lady Hornflower, that she may further refine her own.” He then began to walk, and the path turned red as a bloody energy evaporated from his body. Every step caused his bloodline to regress and his power to diminish. And as this happened, Lady Hornflower’s bloodline increased in strength until it broke through from low king level to middle king level.

The cost was Lord Short-Horn’s bloodline, which regressed to that of an upper end lord. This was the minimum level of bloodline he required to maintain his cultivation. Advancing even a single sub realm would be impossible without improving it.

“The price was too great,” Jadefall muttered.

Wu nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Can’t afford it.”

Jadefall frowned. “What I meant was that he should rather die than give it up. What’s worse is that this Lady Hornflower probably won’t give him a second glance form now on instead of paying back the favor.”

“Wu does have a point though,” Huxian said. “You couldn’t pay the price even if you wanted to.”

Jadefall snorted angrily. “We’re not all God Beasts like you are. And besides, we’re not sure if the Heartforge Spirit won’t accept a lesser bloodline.

Fortunately, a demon volunteered for the path and gave them the answer they sought. “I choose to sacrifice my bloodline!” the demon said, but the Heartforge Spirit shook its head.

“A princely Bloodline is insufficient,” it said. “You must give up something else instead. Note that since you have started on this path, you cannot turn back.”

The rest of the demons eyed the snake demon curiously. Although his bloodline was only a princely one, he was one of the many Dao Lords present.

“I… I…” the snake demon gnashed its teeth. “Fine. I chose to give up my law runes!”

“And to whom will you give them?” the Heartforge Emperor asked.

“To my senior from the Umbral Mage Serpent Lineage!” the demon shouted.

Jadefall’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t this cheating? They’re using this as an opportunity to strengthen their clans!”

“But I don’t envy him,” Huxian said as he watched the serpent walk with painful steps. Each one took away pieces of his law runes, which appeared atop his clansman, fully materialized, in a way that Huxian had thought in possible. In fact, it was the first time he’d ever heard of such a perfect transfer of power.

After this, many others followed their examples. Some Dao Lords gave up their runes, while many demons gave up their bloodlines. Though this was a difficult choice to make, these demons simply weren’t confident at all in facing the Path of Battle. These small sacrifices were a far better choice than certain death.

Others even chose to give up their lifespan, but this one was tricky, since it depended on the demon. Some dropped dead before they reached the end of the Path of Sacrifice.

Finally, three hundred demons managed to pass through, including White Mirage of the Paper Tiger Clan, who sacrificed her bloodline for her mate, Baleful Vision, thereby pushing his bloodline up to imperial grade. He then immediately challenged the path of battle and succeeded.

Hours passed then, and no new demons stepped forward. Everyone was at a loss for what else could be paid. They got their answer when a demon with a princely bloodline but no law cultivation to speak of approached the Path of Sacrifice.

“What will you sacrifice to enter the Heartforge Realm?” the Heartforge Spirt asked him. This time, its voice seemed to be taking pleasure in another’s misfortune. The demon was of the tiger clan, and at first, no one heard what he said.

But the Heartforge Spirit wasn’t in a merciful mood. “Speak up,” it said. “When you chose to sacrifice such a thing, you lose the right to maintain your dignity.”

The demon trembled but spoke a bit louder. “To live, to grow stronger, I can sacrifice anything,” he said. “I choose to sacrifice… my freedom!”

“What?” a demon said. “What does that even mean?”

“This price… is acceptable!” the Heartforge Spirit said with a cruel smile. “Now tell me, little salve – to whom will you offer your lifelong, unconditional servitude?”

“To the strongest demon present!” he exclaimed.

The Heartforge Spirit laughed. “If I were to make such a decision, these demons would riot. Either name an individual or a condition. The condition cannot include the release of your servant-master bond.”

“Then I choose the first demon who dares walk the Path of Battle alone!” he said.

“That is acceptable,” the Heartforge Spirit said. “Does anyone wish to volunteer to take the trial, now that a servant has offered himself up as a wager?”

One of the hundred or so more powerful demons stepped forward. He was of the Paper Tiger Clan and looked a great deal more vicious than Baleful Vision. “I will walk the Path of Battle alone,” he announced.

The other tiger demon, the future slave, shivered as he walked the path of Sacrifice. A collar gradually appeared around his neck. The Path of Sacrifice was longer than in most instances – its end point was directly in front of the one he’d sworn himself to.

“Finish it,” the Heartforge Spirit said.

The tiger gritted his teeth, then kneeled and kowtowed. “Master,” he said.

And just like that, things got a lot more interesting.