218. The Dao is the Dao

Eun Dawo gritted his teeth, clenching both fists.

This was supposed to be an easy ambush. He had hired ten priests of the Cult of the Wordless Devil just in case, since their intel indicated a Peak Adept at best.

A Profound of any kind was nothing to trifle with, let alone the Clear Water Sect.

His opponent’s cultivation was identical to his at the Early stage, and her aura felt less powerful than his. Nothing unexpected—she might have been a sect lady, but he had been baptized in a cosmic ray as a child.

No one on the entire planet could compare in their control over their body’s Mana and talent in the chrome affinity.

However, his attacks weren’t landing. The woman, seemingly a rot affinity user named Chu Hua, floated a mile away in the skies of his smoking world.

Watching. Waiting.

In Dawo’s estimation, the Dao of the Strong Nuclear Force, one of the four pillars of the Nexus of Physics, stood atop the multiverse.

Fire, liquid, life, and death—these were human concepts.

Physics was fundamental.

Chrome Mana flowed from his soulcore to his hands. He gripped the air itself. “Break.”

Dao energy flowed through his words into the air. The strong nuclear force was the fundamental interaction responsible for binding quarks and for binding protons and neutrons to form atomic nuclei.

It was the first of those responsibilities that Dawo invoked now.

He activated [Quark-Gluon Severing].

A sudden, blinding flash of light began the process. Air molecules in a thousand-foot radius in front of him superheated to trillions of degrees Kelvin in an instant as all quark-gluon bonds broke down.

What formed was a perfect sphere of blue-white radiance, shimmering and shifting in the sky. It was a soup of elementary particles emitting intense radiation along all wavelengths.

A quark gluon-plasma.

Rippling strands of variegated light danced across the surface of the plasma in colors only caught by a cultivator’s eye.

Then, it expanded.

The energy and temperature pushed the sphere’s border until it was a mile in diameter.

Dawo flew after Chu Hua, manipulating the gluons with his body to reach hypersonic speeds.

His sphere, he controlled with perfect precision, waiting for the perfect moment.

When the time came, the Profound realm hurled the sphere and let go of his mental grip.

Without his will loosening the gluons, the nuclear bonds reestablished themselves. The sphere’s borders collapsed inward at speeds beyond even his perception, colors redshifting as the temperature plummeted.

Each quark found its partner, each gluon found its bond.

Reality itself shuddered.

The sky turned white. Every molecule in a three-mile radius was transmuted into pure radiation. The implosion unfolded in absolute silence, sound outpaced by the light and heat.

Dawo reined in the devastation, utilizing his Dao to suppress the shockwave and prevent the annihilation of the country beneath him.

Chu Hua’s voice rang out as the light faded.

“You can destroy with your Dao,” she said, her words reaching him across their aerial battlefield. “But you cannot kill.”

In an instant, she breached most of the gap, appearing three hundred feet away.

Behind the Clear Water Sect disciple materialized an enormous Dharmachakra—the eight-spoked wheel representing the Buddha’s teachings.

As it began to rotate, roots and branches spiraled outward from the rim, some verdant and full of life, others rotting and decomposing. All was balanced in an eternal cycle of reincarnation.

Dawo attacked, using his Dao and chrome Mana to fuse the atoms in the air. In a cylinder stretching out to the woman’s Dharmachakra, he initiated nuclear fusion—[Atomic Cascade].

Once again, the world went white, brighter than a thousand suns and hotter than the core of a star.

Yet his explosive move felt constricted at every angle. The energy rotted away into her wheel, which spun faster every second. Regrowth Mana infused Chu Hua’s body, healing the minor wounds she had suffered during their battle.

She intoned in a tongue that Dawo knew not. Not the Language of the Pure Dao, but still primordial and hegemonic.

In that split second, he fell under her mantra; roots grew around his legs and arms.

It was too late.

Imaginary Karma entered his system. The Mai Atalans were known for their strong taboo against Karmic cultivation, but entering the Buddhist paradigm was a well-abused loophole.

Paradoxically, orthodox Buddhists like Chu Hua, who followed Heaven’s Path, did not necessarily use Karmic energy. They could use Karmic energy, but the Dao of Karma was best understood as the causality of human action rather than a specific accumulated energy.

Eun Dawo faced two of the three Supreme Daos of the multiverse: Samsara and Karma, represented by rot and regrowth and the eternally rotating Dharmachakra.

“You were foolish to think that the strong force is more fundamental than life or death. The Dao is the Dao. There is nothing greater and nothing lesser.”

There was only one last resort.

Dawo was no rich man. Everything he had, he had struggled for.

Even his lucky baptism would have been meaningless without his unbreakable will to power. The streets of Fallstride were a constant gu ritual, where only the strongest and most savage survived. Everything he owned, he could fit in his soul’s inventory.

There were no Internal Guardians or life-saving treasures for him.

Even a philistine like him knew that you only used your Domain when you were outmatched or sure of your victory. Allowing your opponents to flee or study your most precious soul was a disaster.

His situation was the former.

“Primordial Nuc—”

Rotting wood wrought from the Dao stuffed Dawo’s mouth before he could finish the name of his Domain.

Chu Hua flew over to him, shaking her head. “The first thing that every cultivator learns is that your first priority should be to prevent your opponent from uttering their Domain’s name. I’ve wasted enough time with you. My assistants require their own assistance now.”

Dawo struggled fruitlessly against his restraints, which only grew by the second until he was completely enveloped in rotted wood.

Eun Dawo, Profound realm warlord of Fallstride, bit off more than he could chew and paid the price.

--------------------

Out of nowhere, an enormous eight-spoked wheel wrapped around the neck of the foreign god.

Alistair watched as Chu Hua returned in a flash, flying above them with a human-sized cocoon of blighted wood. Her lips were sealed, but the atmosphere was abuzz.

Soft-spoken sutras filled the air as sin failed to overcome the cycle of reincarnation. This path was not Alistair’s, but the many similarities allowed him to comprehend with ease.

Even the most hardened sinner eventually shed their Karmic debt throughout countless rebirths. Even the punishment for shedding the blood of a Buddha was a finite aeon.

The pretensions of absolute evil by some Adepts on the frontier were nothing before the mercy of the Buddha. Nothing before Samsara, the endless cycle of rebirth.

The inner disciple did not grant the outer disciples instant victory. By placing her finger on the wheel, she welcomed them to take advantage of the situation.

Alistair pressed forward with his Domain, bloodwraiths of the heretics’ victims haunting them, weakening their resolve. His colored palms continue to batter away, this time making ground with each passing second. The reverberations they caused in the Dao synergized with Hua’s Dharmachakra, creating a dual cycle from both Heaven and Man.

Berengar was everywhere at once, his speed more than doubled with his internal Domain.

The Sturmklinge scion ceased to be flesh and blood—he was the Living Storm. His form shifted into ionized plasma, purple electrical currents crackling the air. Through his crystal sword, the essence of the storm flowed, each precise slash against the massive Domain’s base resembling a dog biting its owner’s ankles.

Fuhao and Riyord redoubled their efforts from the front. Mellifluous singing and dreams come to life, piercing the torso of the entity.

The heretics refused to give in. But their permission was not necessary. One by one, their bodies fell out of their Domains, unable to handle the profane arts that allowed them to merge in the first place.

After the first died, a cascade followed. Each death made the whole weaker, which put more strain on each remaining member.

After five seconds, the evil god was no more. The physical power of the heretics’ transgressions had been purified, the Karmic debt upon their souls weighing them down to Hell.

The exact Hell in question was the subject of Dev'rox’s speculation. “For misdeeds as black as these, they’re guaranteed Tapana or Pratāpana Hell. They’ll be tortured for billions of years before being reborn, unless they’ve somehow contracted with a powerful devil.”

Alistair collapsed after the final heretic died, still keeping an eye out with [Reality Sense] just in case.

Even as he calmed himself and centered his mind, his arm painfully underwent its regrowth process, around halfway done a minute after being chopped off.

Level up! You are now level 104. +10 Strength, +9 Agility, +8 Wisdom, +10 Charisma, +9 free Attribute points, +70 Upgrade Points.

Alistair placed his 15 Upgrade Points into [Hand of Karma] to bring it over to Tier 5. An unusual upgrade notification popped up, but he ignored it for now as he recovered. His 66 remaining Upgrade Points went to a new Badge slot, sitting at 66/600.

As Chu Hua touched the ground, she surveyed her assistants. “I’m very impressed with you four. Very impressed. To hold off the Domains of nine Middle Adepts, even for less than ten seconds, with only four Early Adepts? They might have had trash foundations, augmented only through taboo sacrifice, but still. And you—”

Hua turned to Alistair. “—You defeated one of them in single combat in ten seconds and then pincered their composite Domain. I observed your battle while facing their Profound, and I think you still had tricks up your sleeve. You chose to take a blow to give a blow, knowing that you could regenerate your arm. That is more than just prowess of Mana and the Dao, but the key to combat.”

“You’re sounding like Elder Aylesfort… senior sister,” Berengar said, almost forgetting the honorific. One arm against his sword that he had plunged in the ground, he was the most beat up of any of them if you didn’t include Alistair’s arm.

Hua tapped the tall outer disciple on the forehead, sending her mixed life Mana into his system.

Regrowth affinity Mana, the essence combining life and sun with the former as the leading partner, was like liquid sunlight filtered through new spring leaves, a vibrant yellow-green that pulsed with sunlit life.

His wounds closed immediately, foreign corruption sizzling into nothingness.

“His Outer Disciple Practical Combat Lessons changed my life, so I should hope so.”

Fuhao somehow looked the most unperturbed of all four of them despite having the second-lowest physicals after Riyord. A breathing technique from her singing, perhaps? She respectfully bowed toward the inner disciple.

“Senior sister, may I inquire as to what just happened?”

“One second, junior sister.” Hua took off into flight. Two seconds later, she returned with their scarred tour guide and the two armed guards. The cloaked men were unconscious, while the Fallstride native looked terrified. “Miss Kya, can you explain the last minute for me and my lovely assistants?”

“Lady Chu, I-I had nothing to do with this!” Kya prostrated herself into a full kowtow, her forehead coated in the burnt remains of the town. “I swear it by the Jade Emperor, by the Eight Legions! I had no idea they were going to ambush us!”

“Hmm.” Hua cocked her head. “You speak truthfully, yet the crux of the matter is that you left my disciples to die. You are Middle Adept yourself, and by stages of realms alone, should have been a better math for those heretics. You and your guards. They have ranged energy weapons, do they not? Your cowardice has caused you to lose face for yourself and all the Crimson Skulls. While it is true that on Fallstride you have learned to survive at all costs, I cannot abide by any action that could harm my fellow disciples. Therefore, we shall take the ruination Natural Inheritance without paying your finder’s fee. You have no recourse because of your deeds, and the relationship between Elder Da Rui’s Cultivation Chambers and the Crimson Skulls shall remain the same. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Lady Chu. You are most merciful.” Kya pressed her head into the dirt even further.

“Let us leave this godsforsaken world,” Hua said to the four outer disciples. “I have a treat to show you along the way.”

---------------

It turned out the “treat” Hua mentioned was the Profound realm who initiated the attack, a man by the name of Eun Dawo.

Dawo had shaggy, unkempt black hair with ice-blue irises. Hua told them that he followed the Dao of the Strong Nuclear Force, which surprised Alistair.

The Nexus of Physics was more common in Sublimed Machine polities than almost anywhere else, but it was still rare, especially on the frontier, where well-trodden paths were encouraged.

Many saw the Nexus as a lesser path, strictly tied to the Physical Plane. If the end goal was securing eternity, either by ascending to the Heavens or by making your Domain the new Heavens, inherently tying yourself to solely physical concepts made things more difficult.

You could interpret the strong force in more philosophical ways, the same as how fire could mean one’s passion, or the fuel of knowledge and life, but such interpretations were far more difficult.

Still, the destructive power Alistair had witnessed from afar was nothing to scoff at. In terms of physical destruction, cultivators of the Nexus of Physics were almost unparalleled.

“A dragon’s fire burns hotter than any star,” Ashendar grumbled, soon returning to his slumber.

Alistair wasn’t sure why she hadn’t executed him or killed him in their fight. Was she going to give him to Elder Da Rui? What would an elder do with that…

Stop that, he thought. It’s unfounded speculation. The Dao of the Strong Nuclear Force is very unusual. Perhaps the elder just wants to study him or use him as an experiment. Unsavory, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m sure a lot of elders commit deeds that violate my Dao, but only one of them, or maybe two, are what I’m concerned with right now.

Sacrificing stealth over speed, Chu Hua summoned her Dharmachakra, having them sit in between the spokes as she flew back to the Teleportation Circle at the top speed they could handle.

“Senior sister,” Alistair said on their five-minute flight back, “Do you call the honored elder Elder Da Rui and not simply Elder Da because of her twin sister?”

“Yes, indeed,” Hua replied. “During my first hundred years at the sect, Elder Da Siar Ka and my master were inseparable. They often spoke as one and always wore the same robes. Far different cultivation, however. Elder Da Rui is a classic sword cultivator using force affinity Mana to cleave worlds in two, while Elder Da Siar Ka follows the rare path of Parallel Attunement.”

“Parallel Attunement?” Alistair asked.

“I’m sure you’ve heard of multivalent Daos, no?”

“Mixing two different Daos together. If you combined the Greater Dao of Order from the Nexus of Mathematics with the Nexus of Magic, you could get something like the Dao of Arcane Structure.”

“Correct. Multivalent Daos are far more common than pure Daos. It makes sense. This world is full of connections with almost every aspect under the Heavens being diluted to some degree. The two sisters always argued about that. My mentor favors purity, pledging herself only to the sword, while Elder Da Siar Ka thought it foolish. She combined the Dao of Gravity from the Nexus of Essences with the Dao of Gravity from the Nexus of Physics. There’s another rare user of that Nexus, besides this guy. Returning to my overall point, that combination is called Parallel Attunement. Taking the same concept found in two different Daos and merging them, or at least finding some duality.”

“I don’t think I would have ever thought to do that,” Riyord said. “What a genius path.”

“I’m sure Martial Aunt Da would love to hear that. She’s been in seclusion for a hundred years, swearing not to exit until she’d reached Peak Visionary. Well, Elder Da Rui has told me that she’ll be excited seclusion soon. Soon for a Visionary could mean ten years. It could mean a thousand, really, but in this context, I’m fairly certain she didn’t mean that long. She’s the Head of the Disciple Hall, where we’ll be bringing that guy.” She pointed to the human-sized tree cocoon hanging from the Dharmachakra.

Their journey took only five minutes—thankfully, no more Profound realms ambushed them. Chu Hua waved them goodbye on their return, flying off with her new prisoner.

“Was this your life often?” Fuhao asked after Berengar and Riyord left to go eat, declaring that their stomachs needed filling. “As a Prime Initiate, that is. The violence.”

“Worse,” Alistair admitted. “I had a feeling that a sect Profound was going to be stronger than even a warlord of the same realm. Stronger foundations with fewer flaws and all that. I wasn’t ever really worried while we had her.”

“You speak truthfully, yet still, my heart faltered upon seeing those heretics.”

“Those guys were an exception regardless of their strength,” Alistair said. “I have rarely seen such concentrated evil. Though, if it makes you feel any better, they were lying about the number of people they’ve sacrificed. I felt it at the end.”

Fuhao sighed. “That does make me feel better, honestly.”

“You stood the tallest after our victory. You didn’t run away, and you didn’t freeze up. How can you consider a small amount of fear or trepidation to be a failure? I bet you performed far better than 99% of those stuck-up noble bastards on their first real mission.”

“You flatter me so.” Fuhao smiled. “I should do some combat missions with Pristine. I have a feeling she’s more like you.”

“If she’s not off with Red.”

The two of them laughed. A warm, golden feeling rose in his stomach. I’ve listened to her azure disc so many times, he realized. Whenever I was feeling down, I played her vibrant songs, just to hear her voice. Her voice really is something else.

Even when speaking, Alistair found that to be true.

Her voice flowed like the gods’ ichor, each syllable perfectly pitched as if her throat contained the finest instrument ever crafted.

When she spoke, he could not help but listen with his ears, heart, and soul.

“There’s going to be an event in two weeks,” Fuhao said. “You should come with me.”

“An event?”

“A gathering of cultivators. Inner and outer disciples, but mostly those under a hundred years old. At the estate of a prominent Selvitari noble clan long entrenched in the sect’s upper echelon.”

Alistair narrowed his eyes. “So you mean a party of spoiled noble brats, that’s going to have dozens of clans scheming and plotting.”

“Parties are for the peasants,” Fuhao giggled. “A proper gathering of cultivators is called a gala.”

A gala? The soulcore translation is funny sometimes. The term “gala” seems out of place with cultivators that could wipe out countries in the before with a single attack.

“I’ll attend,” Alistair said. “If it’s really a who’s who of our sect, then it would be remiss of me not to show up. I am the new hot thing.”

“Oh, so very hot. Clearly, the rising star is as humble as he is powerful.”

Their banter continued for a few minutes as Alistair relaxed his mental state from the combat of not ten minutes prior.

Tomorrow was Elder Aylesfort’s second class which he had waited two whole weeks for. His written exam was complete.

What mysteries of cultivator combat would the esteemed elder reveal next?