It was true iridescence that transcended the Concept of Iridescent Flame. It was the iridescent light that remained when the fire was gone and lit up the world and all its wonders. He focused on the light, as Graceful Twilight had told him. That simple realization brought tears to his eyes. It made all the pain and suffering, regardless of the outcome of these duels, worth it. He would carry this story across lifetimes, regardless of Meng Po’s tea and the rigors of reincarnation.
He wept then. For three days, he lost himself. He appreciated his work much like an artist would at the completion of a masterpiece. When he regained his sobriety, Cha Ming no longer knew what to do with his time. He felt lost, unable to improve. After all, he’d carved his core three extra times. He’d fully refined his key techniques. He’d practiced both his domains until he was blue in the face. Still, something tickled in the back of his mind. He was bored, yet there was something unfinished.
It was then that he thought of Elder Ling’s puzzle tower. Cha Ming took out the small item. It was a powerful treasure, one that he didn’t deserve. With it, he’d learned a runic framework and understood the essence of stories. And now, after all this time, he knew how to reach the next stage.
The first part of runic puzzles was their sequence. Their story. Now, he would need to imbue them with emotion. Thinking about the runes and how they interacted was no longer enough. What mattered now was how he felt about them. How he felt they should work. In this way, runes became like concepts. They became alien and unfamiliar. Completely open to interpretation.
Cha Ming worked away at the runic puzzle. At first, he failed repeatedly. This was a new experience for him, but he took to it with renewed vigor. He started from the basics again, slowly rebuilding his skills from the most basic of runic puzzles.
Time passed quickly, and on the last day of the seventh month of his seclusion, Cha Ming finished the 1,001st puzzle. The tower glowed with strange, ever-shifting lights, readjusting its shape until Cha Ming heard a soft click. Frowning, he twisted the tower, revealing an empty space he’d never known was there. Inside it was a small teleportation circle and a ring. The circle had just been activated.
How curious. A reward for finishing the first stage? There was a scroll beside the ring. Cha Ming opened it first.
Cha Ming,
Congratulations on reaching the next step. To have come this far, you’ll have mastered the first part of Fuxi’s Puzzle Box, the path of runic stories, and started on the path of emotional retelling.
Remember that true stories come from the heart. They cannot be expressed in methods or volumes. If stories don’t feel right, they weren’t meant to be.
As you’ve probably realized, this puzzle box is a teaching device I once obtained in a long-forgotten library. It’s quite compatible with your current runic path. Should you continue cultivating this path, there is hope to transcend this realm. Not for me, but perhaps you can achieve this.
Naturally, your achievements should be celebrated with a reward. Mr. Mao Mao has been keeping an eye on your progress in Shimmerwing and suggested this gift based on his observations. In his opinion, those pesky birds are vindictive and territorial, and will never give you their blood willingly. Well, too bad. I happen to have some. I hope it helps you overcome the last stage of your trial.
Take care. Come to the West Sea Sect when you’re ready.
Best,
Elder Ling
Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed, and he quickly cast his senses into the ring. His heart pounded when he saw a large vial of iridescent blood. At first, he couldn’t believe his eyes, and then, taking out the blob of dark blood and feeling its resonance with his body, he laughed. The thing he’d been seeking, the thing he’d worked so hard for, and the thing he’d thought lost forever and that had driven him to three additional carvings, had literally been teleported to him in a storage ring. The irony was that he no longer really needed it. He was more than strong enough to face the prefecture lords now. But he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sun Wukong said, appearing beside him. “After all this, he just gives it to you? Where’s the fairness in that?”
“Maybe he thinks I earned it,” Cha Ming said.
“He’s spoiling you!” Sun Wukong said. “Ruining perfectly good material! You don’t just give things to students. Back in my day, my teacher would throw me into pit of monsters and tell me to come see him when I survived. Then when I did, he’d tell me overcoming my limits was its own reward and to do it all over again.”
“In all fairness, Elder Ling is an actual teacher from an actual academy,” Cha Ming said. “He’s trained disciples before. Have you?”
The Monkey King looked away and refused to answer the question.
“Thank you, Elder Ling,” Cha Ming whispered. “Things are finally looking up.” He moved to close the puzzle box, but on a whim, he created a thank-you note and a letter inquiring as to Elder Ling’s health and placed it on the teleportation circle. This time, he made sure to ask for a return address.
Chapter 36: Traps
Awakening divine blood wasn’t nearly as complex as carving bones or refining marrow. In fact, the process was similar to how Cha Ming had initially refined his body. The first thing he did was paint an intricate diagram on his skin that would guide the blood through his veins. The most complicated diagram was on his heart, which needed to be strengthened to handle the strain. It took days before he started the blood-awakening process.
Cha Ming dripped the Iridescent Ancestor’s inheritance blood on his forehead one drop at a time. It sank into his skin, where it was absorbed by his greedy blood vessels. Any blood it touched was ignited and burned, its foundations changed.
Little by little, tiny golden flecks appeared inside Cha Ming’s circulatory system, deepening his understanding of what godhood really was. It was something that couldn’t be explained in depth, for the process was as personal as an immortal’s Dao.
He knew that gods were strong. They were respected by the universe. They had divine abilities. They had an inner world. The true demarcation between mortals and gods was the presence of divine blood, which, in addition to empowering an individual, could be inherited. Demigods were nothing like qi cultivators. They weren’t skillful manipulators, and they didn’t seek understanding on their surroundings. Demigods were. They existed. It was this independence that defined them.
While demigods might seem simple to outside observers, Cha Ming could see that this was far from the truth. Demigods were infinitely complex, despite their lack of much more than physical strength and frightening regeneration. With every drop of blood he awakened and pushed through his heart and veins, he understood that a little more.
His blood turned golden, though it still contained a hint of iridescence. All five elements acted on Cha Ming, simultaneously destroying and recreating him. If bones and organs and marrow were the foundation of life, blood was the framework of divinity.
The blood nourished him and shaped him into something that was more than just a human. His mortality was purged from his body one painful pump at a time. Four painful months crawled by, and with each passing day, his stores of divine energy grew. Whereas before, it would be taxing to use his two divine abilities for more than a few minutes, now, he could use them for days. This was not due to any change in the quality of the divine abilities, but rather the reservoir he drew from.
Fortunately for Cha Ming, phoenix blood was one of the best storage vessels for divine energy. Just as he was stronger, tougher, and could modify his weight and size much better than anyone else in his body-cultivation realm, his divine stores were also one level higher than normal. And like before, when he reached the peak of the blood-awakening realm, reaching the half-step-muscle-empowering realm, he gained another divine ability, his boon for having chosen the holy path. Claddings of Light, the one divine ability that had been available to him on the mural in the second trial, was seared into his mind.
Cha Ming woke on the 365th day feeling more alive than ever before. He clenched his fists, testing out his new strength. His fist strength had increased by a whole order of magnitude. Whereas before, he’d had a fist strength of two million jin, now it was ten million jin, or a thousand wanjin. Such strength might not be able to destroy mountains, but he could certainly chip away at them given enough time.
Cha Ming was unused to such great strength. He didn’t have much time to test it either. In fact, he wondered how it would have ever been possible to awaken his blood much further than the middle-blood-awakening realm in only ten days. In hindsight, his pursuit for the blood had been foolish. He spent the rest of the day in the pocket realm, taking advantage of what little time he had remaining. Space was no longer as stable, as his movements resulted in cracks and tiny tears in space.
He summoned Temple Sand Clones and began to spar, testing out his divine abilities, old and new. The clones weren’t as strong as his physical body, but they were constructs of the five elements and could take a great deal of punishment. As the day passed by, Cha Ming gained a deeper understanding of his body. It wasn’t just his blood that had changed, but something deep within the worlds within his bones. Their very nature had changed.
As a demigod, Cha Ming had a certain affinity to everything around him. His connection to the world inside him ran much deeper. When he looked inside, he noticed that his internal universe had reorganized, and now, it was actually limiting him. It was blocking him from accessing the vast majority of its power. Moreover, despite this barrier, he could feel a deeper affinity for it. This was his world. The creatures in it mattered. In fact, he was grateful for the limits in that they would stop him from destroying it.
Time passed by much more quickly in this world, so Cha Ming was able to see it change. The changes were small at first. Insignificant. Elemental life was still present, but now, it was fading. The worlds were built on their corpses, and from their ashes sprang biological life. Local and born of himself. He’d created them, and while they weren’t sentient, he knew it was only a matter of time. It was a sobering thought.
“Teacher,” Cha Ming said finally. “If I die, what happens to my inner world?”
“Ah,” Sun Wukong said, appearing beside him. “You’ve reached that point, then.”
“I’m worried,” Cha Ming admitted. “Is it wrong for me to risk my life?”
“That’s a very complex philosophical question,” Sun Wukong said. “Let me counter with another question: Was it wrong to risk Huxian’s life by gambling yours? Would it have been right to abandon your friends instead?” He placed his hand on Cha Ming’s shoulder. “There’s a time and a place for everything. Now is not the time for doubt. Have faith in yourself and what you’re doing.”
Cha Ming nodded solemnly. “The duels. It’s almost time, isn’t it?” He felt the counter ticking away. Then a thought struck him. “If those ambushing us were able to determine the nature of this space, they would be able to time an attack, wouldn’t they?”
“A fair point,” Sun Wukong said. “Taking into account the time offset, we’re looking at about two hours remaining here, but a little less than twenty seconds in the outside world.”
“Iridescent Ancestor,” Cha Ming called out.
“Yes?” the Iridescent Ancestor replied, appearing in the pocket realm. “I must say, you really know how to give a girl good outlier data. I’m quite pleased with what I’ve been witnessing during your stay.”
Cha Ming’s expression darkened. “Are you telling me that you helped me out with this pocket dimension so I could be your test subject?” What was it with the Iridescent Phoenix Clan? Iridescent Wonder and Iridescent Charity, while nice, were no different.
“For science, yes,” she said, pushing up a pair of glasses that perfectly matched her iridescent lab coat. “In fact, that’s half the reason I set up these trials to begin with.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Cha Ming said. “I’m both insulted and amused.”
“I’ll be sure to write that down under ‘test subject commentary,’” the Iridescent Ancestor said.
“We’d like to leave now,” Cha Ming said.
“Early?” the Iridescent Ancestor asked. “Whatever for? Are you sure you don’t want to wait until your time is up?”
Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed. “You told her when we’d come out, didn’t you?”
“Well… there goes the surprise,” the Iridescent Ancestor said. “I wanted to see how you’d deal with her.”
“I’d prefer to come out unharmed, thank you very much,” Cha Ming said.
“From the test subject’s point of view, yes, that is ideal,” the Iridescent Ancestor admitted. “But for the tester, data is best.”
“Can I please leave now?” Cha Ming asked.
“I suppose this counts as data too,” the phoenix muttered. “Very well. I will allow it.”
“Just let me know wh—” Cha Ming’s voice cut off as suddenly, he appeared in Shimmerwing Palace. The painting was gone, as was everyone else. Only a surprised Iridescent Torch remained in the deserted room. She cursed when he appeared and summoned her alchemist flames to boil him alive.
Iridescent fire covered her like armor, and she wielded her cauldron as a weapon. Cha Ming’s surroundings became an unbearable inferno. The sudden attack surprised him, but he was in a much better position than he would have been twenty seconds later. Cha Ming summoned the Clear Sky Staff and teleported behind Iridescent Torch. She gasped at the movement, though she reacted quickly, sending the cauldron toward Cha Ming’s new position and bathing him in flames.
Cha Ming was going to summon the Demon-Sealing Pillar but thought better of it. This was a good place to test his abilities. The Iridescent Ancestor had a point. She might be an investiture-realm phoenix in her homeland, but he was no longer a simple Daoist. The data would be valuable.
A massive six-kilometer creation domain appeared, falling just short of Iridescent Torch’s ten-kilometer dominion. But the mere fact that he could do so when he was a half-step-rune-gathering Dao God was shocking. He began creating droves of talismans, using ice and multicolored water to fight her fires, and using walls of earth and stones and boulders to block her flames. The sheer might of it surprised Iridescent Torch, though she quickly adapted.
She began to modify their environment, stepping up the heat. A phoenix of iridescent flame appeared beneath Cha Ming and circled upward, surrounding him with a twister of multicolored fire. In turn, Cha Ming locked her in a spatial prison and began to teleport around as the burning phoenix chased after him. And since he’d never fought such a strong demon in earnest before, he waited to see how long it would take her to break through his spatial prison.
Only a fraction of a second, it turned out. She was an early-investiture-realm demon. It wasn’t long before she adapted to his fighting pattern ,and he found himself on the defensive again. She was much stronger, much faster than he was physically, and he wasn’t just fighting her, but the entire Five Fire Mountain Range.
Fine, let’s see if a partial boost will do, Cha Ming thought. He summoned one pair of wings, activating half of Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations. In this state, he could maintain his limit break for much longer. Perhaps an hour if he exerted himself. His cultivation shot up, and his base domain increased to five kilometers in diameter. His creation domain expanded all the way to fifteen kilometers in diameter.
“Impossible,” Iridescent Torch said. “You haven’t broken through! She promised!”
“Well, isn’t that unfortunate?” Cha Ming said. “Then again, as far as she’s concerned, you’re a dead woman walking.”
“You!” Iridescent Torch said. She grabbed her cauldron and summoned the power of her iridescent flames. Fire shot out of the demon weapon, creating a massive iridescent phoenix. Its flames filled the inner portion of her dominion, her investiture, with a column of multicolored flame.
Cha Ming cursed and teleported aw
ay, but the flames were omnipresent. They forced him to defend with both his domain and physical defenses. He tried using talismans to defend, but they burnt up in an instant, and the flames scorched away his skin, which struggled to regenerate.
Physical strength and domain isn’t going to cut it, Cha Ming decided. Moreover, paper talismans were a no go. That was fine for Cha Ming, since he was able to quickly deconstruct their formulas and reassemble them on clay tiles instead. He threw out the new clay talismans, and they summoned walls of earth that surrounded him like a tortoise shell. Then, he used a substantial amount of creation qi to assemble a poetic talisman.
“Energy!” Cha Ming shouted as it took shape. His poetic talismans were linked to his soul. As such, it was a full mid-grade talisman, which was boosted a further half step by his iridescent aura. Conjuring the Energy Talisman consumed nearly a quarter of his total creation qi pool, and a good portion of his fire qi. It wasn’t the most cost-effective way to fight, but he wanted to see its effects.
That single sheet of paper caused the phoenix’s flames to rebel and turn on her, splitting it into five different colors and merging into a black flame fully under Cha Ming’s control. It struck her in the chest, and the backlash from having her technique broken caused her to fall from the sky. Her armor of flame cracked as she smashed into the rocky palace floor, coughing up iridescent blood mixed with bone and flesh.
“How dare you!” Iridescent Torch growled. “You think this is enough to take down a demon? You think we’re weak creatures like Daoists and demigods?” Her dominion churned, and massive amounts of demonic energy poured into her from the mountains. They began to heal her gaping wounds. Demons did not have vitality stores like demigods did, nor could they recover damage to their physical body as quickly. But their bodies were stronger, tougher, harder. Moreover, they had a huge advantage in their homeland: energy regeneration. This energy could be used to power their techniques, but it could also be used to heal their bodies.
Claddings of Light : Book 12 of Painting the Mists Page 56