The Dao of Magic: Book II

by Andries Louws

  All my mind is now available to me. Instead of ascending, I use all of it to control the process. The liquid is fighting back, fighting with me to either crystallise or expand back to its less dense fluidity it was before. I grin and inhale. A bucket’s worth of liquid, holding more energy than an atomic bomb, rushes inside my body.

  I divide the stuff, sending it to both my cores again. Time loses its meaning as the super state of liquid qi affects my mind. It fights me on levels other than physical power, wanting to take an intent. I refuse. I even refuse to let it take a refusing intent. Pure neutral. Then let that neutrality fall away, achieving true emptiness.

  Emptiness is the ultimate canvas, after all. No better starting point. No state has more potential. I even let the emptiness fall away.

  Emptiness without emptiness is true emptiness or some such nonsense.

  ⁂

  My previous cultivation base was built upon knowledge. I turned my fully formed solid core into a single letter upon entering the foundation realm. That was the way I took the first step on my Dao back then. Doubling my power gave me another letter. After a while, I got a word. An ever-changing word that contained all that I knew, learned, studied and understood.

  Then I achieved a sentence. A paragraph came after that. Then a page, a chapter, a book. Utilising my cultivation was as simple and complex as telling a story. Expanding my power was as simple and complex as writing a paper. My ‘shouting at qi’ technique is a very simple application of this concept.

  Then the book became two books. Then a row, a shelf, an entire library. I made an entire planet filled with libraries; an entire solar system filled with metaphorical knowledge. Every high-level cultivation technique works this way. An ever-expanding cycle of reinforcement and growth.

  The cultivation world deemed it necessary to add several layers of made up mysticism into the mix, restricting possibilities even further. Complex structures of stories, legends and legacies, cultivators pieced together Frankenstein-ian cultivation bases made from bits and pieces gathered here and there.

  Instead of a continuous curve, the process was then further interrupted and muddled by several stages such as spirit severing, nascent soul creating, Dao seeking and more esoteric terms. And when they got stuck on a certain level, instead of looking within and finding the cause, they cut away parts of themselves. The cultivation process then could continue at the cost of becoming a lesser person.

  So, what is the opposite of this process? I gave this a lot of thought over the past three weeks. Why would I put borders around myself? It is useful to have pre-defined structures in place, channels through which to guide your own power. I have come to the conclusion that I do not want that. I want to remain as free and untethered as I was on the day of my birth.

  A child is a blank slate, filled with endless potential. This then gets hemmed in by the place of birth, the manner in which the child is raised, the language, culture and way of life imparted. Each lesson is both a tool and a chain.

  This might be an unhealthy way of looking at life. And it might not be suited for everyone. Some people need solid structures to build their life upon. I did that two times already, both on earth and in the cultivation world. Now it’s time for something different.

  ⁂

  “What’s he doing?” Bord is the first to speak after what feels like hours of silence. The entire lightshow had everyone looking up with awe on their faces until now. Teach is hovering far above, surrounded by a whirlwind of glowing items and lights, surrounded by a whirlwind that is slowly shrouding his figure.

  “Building a foundation. Spank my butt and call me Nan… Got it! HAHAHA, YOU SHITHEAD! I GOT IT!”

  All gazes land on Re-Haan for a moment. She looks mortified for a split second, and looks away while fidgeting, even going so far as to tap her foot nervously under the collective judging gazes. She coughs lightly. “Ignore that, it’s just an inside joke between me and Drew.”

  Doubtful gazes tear away from the dragoness and focus back upwards. Ket speaks up next. “Does he need to inform the entire world about this, though?”

  “He’s sucking up mana!” Ares’s face twitches as she displays an entire spectrum of emotions in short succession.

  “Don’t worry. He won’t take more than a few percents.”

  “Re, a few percents of what?” Asks Tess.

  “A few percents of the planet’s mana. His two cores need a lot of qi.”

  “TWO CORES?” Ares, Ket and Selis now stare at the dragoness with wide eyes.

  Re-Haan looks away shiftily. “Oh, he never told you? I will shut up now. Don’t ask me any more questions.”

  “This explains his strength!” Selis exclaimed in realisation. “He must have a heart-and a braincore!”

  Ket nods in agreement. “No way he is that strong with just a braincore. He might want to hurry up though. Something is coming this way.” He then walks over to the steering wheel and pushes a button. The sight of Teach gets blurred by the stealth field shimmering into place around the ship.

  “How long is this munch munch going to take?” Bord does not even stop chewing while posing this question.

  They collectively shrug their shoulders. Vox takes out a piece of jade and frowns. “Can’t access the server for some reason.”

  Ares puts a head-sized piece of jade against her forehead. “Ket, we didn’t copy that bit. Or I can’t find it.”

  “I’ll be mutating grass again. Don’t bother me.” Angeta stomps away from the sight with an angry look on her face.

  The rest keep staring upwards for quite a while. The black dots on the horizon slowly grow into bigger shapes until they turn out to be dragons. An entire flock of winged lizards. Re-Haan looks at them briefly, a weird look on her face.

  Then the entire world is white for a single instance, and the shining spectacle above their heads is gone. It takes the group a while before they come back to their senses.

  “What just happened?”

  “Uhm, I think it had something to do with Teach?”

  “Oooh, dragons!”

  “Wow, that’s a lot of dragons.”

  “Why are they here?”

  “Good thing the stealth field is on!”

  The group discusses a bit more, unable to come to a conclusion. They all seem oddly uncertain about what they all were doing just a while ago. They mill around for a bit until someone pulls out some food. They then all decide that eating is a good idea. Minutes later, the entire group is happily eating away at a food-laden table.

  Chapter forty-five

  Space

  S PAAACE!

  SPACEPSSPACSPACE I AM IN FUCKING SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!

  Excuse me for freaking out. I am slightly hyper right now because I AM IN SPACE.

  ASGAHSGD, SPAAACE!

  ⁂

  Fifteen minutes of spinning and tumbling in zero gravity later, I calm down a bit. I look around, one half of my view is occupied by a planet. A crescent of blue atmosphere frames green, blue, and yellow ridges. And what a shade of blue it is. I once read an article about astronauts being unable to describe the shade of blue that surrounds a planet. The man in question said that photos just don’t do it justice. I totally agree.

  The other half is near empty blackness. The sun is somewhere off to the left, and I see a partial moon to the right. The stars are outshone by both the sun and the moon, letting me only glimpse a twinkle here and there.

  I am in fucking space! For the first time in my three lives, I’m in space. Turning my back to the planet and sun allows me to see the starscape. A band of white paints the galaxy around me in a milky streak. Absolutely breath-taking.

  I bask in the absolute silence, the gushing of my blood and pounding of my heart loud in my ears. I take a shallow breath of the air around me. The atmosphere at this altitude is non-existent. Only my newly gained wind affinity allows me to keep a bubble of the stuff around me without spending obscene amounts of qi.

  I take a deep breat
h and compress the air into my lungs. I chuckle soundlessly. I thought that would be more qi-efficient, but I now have to increase the qi circulation under my skin to stop myself from freezing very slowly.

  A lot of the radiation in deep space is being deflected by this planet’s magnetic field, but I’m still being bombarded by a broad spectrum of harmful radiation. I have… around five more minutes before the damage to my cells and DNA becomes a problem. Let’s get to work.

  I turn towards the planet. A massive ocean is below me. I see the vague outlines of the human and beastkin kingdoms contrasted against the sea. Squinting, I see the mage islands, no longer a symmetrical formation now that Darkness Island has gone the way of the dodo. From up here the artificial nature of the islands is even more apparent.

  Tower, Triangle and the round Mana dungeon are just big enough for me to make them out. I do need to enhance my eyes quite a bit, layering a sheet of qi across my retina to even catch a glimpse of them. I see some more odd shapes jutting from the landscape here and there. A massive yellow cube is poking up from the desert to the south of the lands I have explored so far, and I spot an elongated spike to the east of the beastkin countries. A massive sphere is surrounded by dark lands further south. I think I spot something oddly spiky to the north, but the sheer density of the atmosphere at that shallow angle rob me of a clear view.

  The opposite side of the ocean is another story altogether. I feel an odd shiver every time I look at those colourful lands. Streaks of non-natural colours like pink, neon green, red and purple are just as prevalent as the normal greens and browns. I will have to investigate whether that’s because the lands are those odd colours or because of some other reason.

  I flash some emotions, and an entirely different sight greets my eyes. The areas around the dungeons are slightly brighter, indicating elevated levels of mana. The mage islands flare brightly with their respective mana types. The opposite continent is a patchwork of dense mana.

  The longer I look at that continent, the more oddities I notice. I can’t spot any dungeons over there, but the lands are rather weird. I see an elevated swath of land, but instead of the mountain ranges one would expect, it’s a bulging sort of hills. They seem to be tens of kilometres high. The atmosphere also bulges weirdly over there, as if the rising lands also push the air upwards, gravity be damned.

  I have not found any information about that continent anywhere, which seems odd. The dragons know there is land there, but the lack of data indicates a lack of knowledge or interest from Rhea’s kin. Next destination found and locked in!

  I look towards the south pole, but I’m not high enough to get a proper look at any possible ice caps. To be honest, it took quite a bit of effort to get this high in the first place.

  The concept of ‘will’ comes into play at the foundation realm. Normal cultivators barely have a sliver of the stuff when they enter the foundation realm, but my cultivation path is anything but normal.

  A single person possessing such a massive amount of power has an effect on the world, allowing the wielder to force things to change with only their mind. I am using my will to remain floating here, regardless of gravity. I used my wind affinity to build up speed, but holding myself up here is starting to become draining. The initial power boost I got from levelling up a realm is reaching its limit.

  I glance at the moon. I want to go there and build a moon base, but my current Will is insufficient for extended spaceflight.

  I look at the planet’s surface for a bit longer, filling in my mental map piece by piece. I can’t help but grin, even as I feel my DNA being bombarded by the lower spectrum of radiation.

  FTHUMK

  Wow, what was that?

  I look down and see a long streak of red mist.

  Ow, this is weird. Why is there a hole in my stomach? Why are all my alarm and detection processes going wild? I blink a couple of times. I can’t feel my legs. Ah, there comes combat mode.

  Assess. Scanning maximum range. Vacuum hampers scanning range. Switch to passive. Sense radiation. Sources of infrared detected. Speeds … fast. Orbital? Meteoroids? Start mapping. Ordered orbits. Not natural. Satellites are of artificial nature. No radiation in visible spectrum. Stealth satellites.

  Detecting projectile. Will air upwards, use as reaction mass. Spot flare of projectile burning up in atmosphere. Passed mere metres above own head.

  Damage report. Spine severed; entire lumbar curve is gone. Dantian attack. Lost ninety percent of small intestines. Remaining ten percent is freezing. Massive damage to stomach area.

  Preliminary conclusion; cultivator killer. Why delay? Stealth satellite with nearly undetectable projectiles.

  Possibility of reaching ground safely is low. Unsteady cultivation base due to recent breakthrough combined with severely compromised body limits possibilities. Enter Tree? Medallion will survive re-entry. Enter Tree.

  ⁂

  A bearded man flops down on a grassy field. The lights of a smattering of small suns filter through the leaves of a massive tree. Blood spews from his mangled midsection as he lies in the grass, unmoving.

  ⁂

  A hand holding a fork freezes halfway to Re-Haan’s mouth. A lonely ship is bobbing on a silent ocean as dragons circle overhead. A group of people is sitting around a table on the deck, eating and chatting. The tallest female sitting at the head of the table turns pale as she opens her mouth a couple of times. She then snaps her gaze upwards, searching the sky.

  “Drew…”

  The animated chatter and eating noises immediately disappear.

  “Teach…”

  “He was breaking through.”

  “Why are we eating like this?”

  “Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Multiple eyes now search the sky. A chair scrapes across the deck and falls backwards as Re-Haan stands, brows furrowed. All eight figures stand and anxiously peer upwards.

  “I was wondering why there were so many dragons here.” Ket rubs his forehead as he closes his eyes.

  “Re, where are you-” The question Tess was directing towards the dragoness halts halfway in her throat. Rhea jumps upwards, cracking the deck under her feet. A fierce gust accompanies the jumping female as she soars into the sky.

  Ket then looks at a smallish girl. “Sel, make lenses. Something is up there.”

  Selis waves her hand a bit, causing a large glob of water to rise from the sea. She stares at the water as the water becomes crystal clear. Murky salt crystals drop on the wooden deck as she starts shaping a series of large biconvex lenses.

  “Someone steer the ship away from here. Re-Haan didn’t employ a stealth shield, and those dragons will discover us at this rate.”

  Vox runs to the steering wheel and starts frantically pressing buttons. Rows of oars splash in the sea and start rowing at top speed. The entire ship shudders as it starts moving.

  Ares speaks up next. “Selis, go calm our wake. I can bend the light just as well. Ket, where should I look?”

  Water washes away the salt as Selis runs to the stern. Ares starts glowing slightly as the air above her starts to warp and fracture.

  “Follow Re.” Ket stands next to Ares as the rest gathers around, looking upwards through the warped air.

  “What is that pink streak?” Bord points a chubby finger to the side of where everyone is looking at.

  “What pink streak?” asks Angeta.

  “Over there! Just look really hard.”

  The wrapped air shifts and a slight haze of pink becomes visible. Bord’s finger shifts slightly. “Something is falling over there.”

  “I can’t see it.” Ares frowns as the distortion shifts minutely.

  “There are triangles in your eyes. Look with those.” Everyone glances at Bord for a split second before looking up again.

  “Nope, can’t see it either. Oh, there is Re-Haan.” Ket narrates as they all see a streak of white shooting upwards. They see a small winged form, covered in an azure glow, streaks of fog
condensing in trails behind her.

  “Did she just eat something?” asks Tess.

  “Oh, she is gone,” notes Angeta.

  “Ah, she caught and entered Tree.” Spectacle over, Bord saunters over to the food-laden table and starts snacking.

  “What happened? Tree?” Ket is looking somewhat confused now.

  Bord shrugs while licking a plate clean. “The Tree necklace Teach is always wearing was falling from up really high. Re-Haan caught it and entered.”

  “Is it still falling?” Ket is now standing very close to Bord, who slowly backs away.

  “Uhm, yeah. Over there.” He points a finger without looking while picking up a sausage.

  “Where will it land?” Vox raises his voice unnecessary to be heard over the splashing of oars.

  “There.” Bord shifts his finger to somewhere on the horizon as he starts chewing on a piece of vegetable.

  “How do you know this!” Ket seems about to freak out now.

  “Just triangulate it, duh…” Bord looks at the black-haired boy with a hint of pity in his eyes while chewing.

  “Fffff. You and your fucking triangles!” Hands in his hair, Ket jumps towards the crow’s nest and starts looking towards where Bord pointed.

  “INCOMING! SWITCHING TO SHIELD!” shouts Vox.

  ⁂

  Dragons circle across an undisturbed piece of ocean. A single light purple specimen dives down. Opening its mouth, a stream of compressed air shoots towards the empty sea. Moments before impact, a ship springs into visibility. The devastating gust of wind shears around a spherical field that sprung up milliseconds before, churning the sea around it into fine droplets.

  “Of course the wind dragon heard us, you retards!”

  “Bord, come here and wear this armour!”

  “Evasive actions, hard ri… starboard!”