Cultivating Chaos

by William D. Arand

  In short order, Fire burst out of his hands as he finished the last sign, a cone of flame splashing out towards Moira.

  Banking hard, the Owl woman flew upward and turned out high above the enemies.

  “She will work to keep that one busy,” Jia said. “Mei will defend against the other Earth user, and Yue will attack.

  “We have the upper hand.”

  “For the time being. Who knows what weapons they’ll pull out,” Ash muttered.

  As if fate had heard him, the woman pulled out several gold-colored balls from her side and tossed them out in front of herself.

  Exploding to life, Monsters appeared.

  “It is a Giant Flame Bear and two Feral Fire Wolves,” Jia said. “Those are… very expensive weapons that only exist for a single use.”

  “In other words, they really want us gone. They don’t want us here at all,” Ash said.

  “They have no limits to this, it would seem. And this is just the first part of the tournament,” Jia said.

  Yue and Mei were suddenly tied up with fighting back three monsters and the woman.

  Yue began throwing her Essence around. Trees and wood sprouted up from the stones themselves. Branches and bushes grew from nothing and worked to entangle and block their foes.

  The two wolves were locked down in the wild growth, the flames around them flaring to life and burning the trap around them as they struggled.

  The Bear simply bulled its way through without a problem.

  The woman was hurling huge boulders at Jia’s tower.

  They knew about this. It’s why they built a pillar and compacted it so much.

  This whole thing has been rigged from the very start.

  “Yes. It has. But that’s alright. I do not think this will be a loss. Though I don’t think it’ll be a win, either.”

  Mei punched upward with one hand, a stone hand shooting up from the ground to send the boulder hurtling away.

  Yue was now contending with the Bear, using her abilities to keep it off balance and away from her.

  The two Wolves had been strangled to death by burnt trees, their bodies becoming an inferno and turning the trap into a funeral pyre.

  A second boulder came, then a third, a sixth, and finally a tenth.

  Mei continued to work at deflecting them away, molding the stones to fit her desires and acting like giant hands. She managed to knock a large number of them away, but she didn’t block them all.

  “Mei Ling, stop this nonsense!” called the woman she was fighting indirectly. “Just let me knock the entire tower down and this’ll be over.

  “You can rejoin the family! You’d be welcomed back with honor!”

  Oh… that’s a problem, isn’t it?

  Mei visibly slowed down at the words.

  The woman who had been throwing boulders stood there panting.

  “Just let it happen, and you can rejoin the family. Your mother misses you,” said the woman.

  Building a giant boulder, the woman held it aloft for a second, then flung it at the tower.

  Mei instantly threw a hand at it, sending it flying as if it had a rocket strapped to it.

  “I know my place, and it is no longer with a family that cast me out. Cast me out like a whipped dog and then tried to snuff me out.

  “Were it not for Ash, it is unlikely I’d be here today,” Mei said. Looking angry and very much in control of herself, she flung a hand at the other woman. “Come then, child. Let me show you what I’ve learned since leaving.”

  Yue was moving away from the bear made out of living fire. Her attacks did little to nothing to the bear, other than keeping it busy.

  But she had it locked up. It wasn’t going to catch her—nor was she going to break away from it or beat it.

  Looking to Moira, Ash watched as she banked around the far side of the Deng tower.

  Her sword whipped out and a rod of metal sliced down into the tower, cracking several blocks off from its side near the middle.

  There were signs all along the height of it that Moira had made some progress in her attacks, but she hadn’t managed a large hit.

  A dull gong sounded.

  “That’s enough!” called the elder.

  Before anyone could do anything, Jia flung a giant ball of water at the Bear. Splashing over it and drenching it from toe to ass. The bear was soaked.

  Except the ball didn’t move. It hovered atop the bear, as if it were a giant snow globe with the bear at its center.

  Without air to breathe, and its fire little more than steam, the bear could do nothing.

  Then a massive air bubble formed near its head and collapsed. The water exploded, and chunks of bear went out in every direction.

  Yue, Mei, and Moira began trooping back to their team. Moira looked somewhat spent, and Mei looked absolutely dead on her feet.

  Yue was the only one who looked even moderately alright, but it was clear she was tired as well.

  Shuffling over, they collectively found spots in the box.

  Yue began pulling out pills from her storage. Several at a time, she put them together into a small pile. Then she held it out to Mei.

  Repeating the process, she gave one to Moira, and then did it a third time, only to down the pills herself.

  Smart. At least they’ll be good to go regardless of whatever else happens.

  Ash looked back to the two towers.

  Theirs looked like it had lost a good portion of its height. The boulders hadn’t needed to strike true—they’d only needed to strike at all.

  “Their tower felt as if it had been sealed together with steel,” Moira grumbled. “It was like hitting the side of a building.”

  “I have no doubt that they probably did something to it. It was obvious as soon as the second portion was announced that they knew what it would be long before,” Mei said.

  Just with a casual visual inspection, it was obvious to Ash his team had suffered more losses than their opponents.

  But it wasn’t a one-sided stomp. It just wasn’t going in their favor was all.

  “For what it is worth, I appreciate that you remained with us,” Jia said, bowing her head to Mei. “I consider you a companion. And I value your input and presence.”

  Sighing, Mei pressed a hand to her head. A second ticked by before she lightly dropped the same hand on the back of Jia’s shoulder.

  “Yes, yes. Come, stand up. I forgive you already. You can help me out later when I ask for a favor. For now, let’s see what’s going to happen next. If I don’t miss my guess, the score will be tied at this point, if we’re lucky.

  “Though it’s equally possible we’ll be very far behind if we didn’t come close to their own score,” Mei said.

  “How many tests are there in a single team bracket?” Yue asked.

  “Usually there were three in the past,” Mei said. “Though I’d say it’s pretty obvious at this point that this is anything but the usual. So I can’t promise anything.”

  “Fair. Three. So we just need to win the next one,” Yue said.

  “Whatever it is,” Ash said.

  Finally, the elder finished counting and held up a hand.

  “The winner is the Deng team. Three points will be awarded to them, and two points to team Gen due to the fact that the number of blocks they lost were within five of the opponent,” the elder called.

  “Oh, we did better than I thought,” Ash said.

  “I targeted the smaller blocks,” Moira said. “They didn’t specify that the smaller blocks would be worth less than the larger blocks.”

  “Smart woman,” Ash said with a grin.

  Moira smiled back at him, her wings fluttering on her back.

  “The next contest will be a test of Dao!” shouted the elder. “Please send out your final member.”

  “Huh… guess that’s me then. Come on, Tala, you’re my weapon this time. Even if all you do is stand there and stare at me, at least I won’t be alone.

  “Let’s
give those long legs of yours a quick walk,” Ash said, starting to walk out into the ring.

  “My long legs?” Tala said, catching up to him.

  “You’re much taller than the average woman in this veil. And a lot of that is leg,” Ash said.

  Tala snorted and one of her ears twitched.

  “You should feel blessed that you’re able to look upon my great beauty. Legs and all.”

  “I do. That I do,” Ash said, coming to a stop in front of the elder.

  Let’s do this, then.

  Thirty-Five

  “Come, come,” the elder said, waving Ash closer. Not waiting for Ash to arrive, the elder pulled out two five-foot-tall rods from thin air. “You really have no need for your weapon to be here.”

  “Be that as it may, I’d like her company,” Ash said.

  The rods were only maybe three inches in diameter and looked to be metallic in nature. On top of that, they looked to be fully engraved on every inch of their surface.

  “As you like.

  “Each contestant will each take one of these,” the elder said, handing one rod to a Deng member Ash didn’t know. Then he turned to Ash and simply dropped it on the ground in front of him. “You’ll hold one end and place the other into the ground. When I activate them, they will each seek out the other and fire a low-yield beam of Qi from their tops.

  “The stronger your Dao, or your knowledge of it, the stronger the beam. Should your beam reach the other’s rod, you win.

  “And right now, there is no doubt that whoever wins here will win this match.”

  Of course. Which means this person probably has a great understanding of a Dao. There’s no way they’d put someone here otherwise.

  “He’s actually a mortal refiner,” Locke said. “If he’s in the Outer Sect, he’s a sleeper. He shouldn’t be here.”

  Great.

  Ash grimaced and reached down to get the rod.

  Flipping it over, he wasn’t sure which end was up.

  “They’re identical.”

  Grasping one end, Ash plunked the other into the ground and looked back to the elder.

  “Ready?” asked the elder.

  The Deng family member nodded. Then Ash did as well.

  “Then… begin!”

  Ash closed his eyes and began to rapidly sink into his Qi Sea.

  There, sticking up from the depths, was the golden column that Ash felt was his Dao.

  Every time he’d cultivated, he’d let his mind drift toward his Dao.

  What he called the Dao of Momentum.

  And each time he did cultivate on it, he added a number of bricks, guiding them ever higher toward the top of his Dantian. The roof of the Qi Sea’s chamber.

  Moving closer to his column, Ash could feel the power radiating off it. Each brick fit and added to the structure.

  Which is amusing. Because my Dao is that of momentum. With each brick I add, it’ll be that much simpler to add another.

  Several bricks formed in thin air and slid into place into the column.

  Letting a small piece of his consciousness float up, Ash could feel the beam ejecting from the rod. It was deadlocked in the middle with his opponent’s beam.

  No, that’s not right.

  Now that he focused on it, Ash could feel a subtle difference in the beams. Ash’s was slowly, in ever-so-minuscule amounts, falling back toward his rod.

  He was losing.

  Or would lose, that was.

  The brief flutter of panic dropped away as Ash smirked to himself.

  That is the way of it, though. It’s no different than my cultivation technique. Start slow.

  Start empty.

  Build up strength and continue on, ever and ever.

  Letting out a slow breath, he focused on his concept of momentum. So far, he’d been applying it in his mentality.

  He’d only touched on it before, but when he thought of his attacks and his abilities, the column felt lacking.

  Lacking, but not wrong. It’d just never been applied. Not truly, at least. Or so Ash thought.

  And when I truly think on it, is the way I fight even little more than momentum?

  I crash or recede. I absorb attacks or return them.

  When I take damage, I return part of it to the attacker. I redirect both physical blows and ability attacks.

  My attacks become a defense as the Qi I siphon from them returns to be built into my shield, and to heal my wounds.

  Rapidly, bricks began to stack up on the column. Slamming into place faster and faster as his thoughts continued along the same track.

  Ash imagined how his abilities, his martial arts, and his mentality all could connect easily to be something akin to momentum.

  Where with little effort, he could dial the speed of the fight up or down, all on his whim and his desire.

  “And that’s only the beginning. When we reach peak Body Refining, we’ll be able to cleanse ourselves completely of impurities.

  “And we can begin building and harnessing our meridians to our needs,” Locke said. “After that, new abilities, new techniques. Molded, harnessed, and built to fit the Dao.”

  Ash’s mind blanked out for several seconds before he realized what Locke was saying.

  His meridians were already flowing to and from a single Dantian. A river in his body that moved according to his will.

  And once he reached the top of this stage of his cultivator’s path, he would control the momentum of his Qi.

  The very blood of his cultivation, his Qi, would be part of his momentum.

  His Qi Sea would be the turbine.

  A turbine must spin.

  As if sensing this thought, his Dantian roiled. The Qi Sea boiled and lapped at the column violently.

  The entire vast ocean of Qi began to swirl. Sluggishly, it foamed and frothed, waves being created from the countercurrents it itself was generating.

  It was literally fighting itself. Half going one way, half going the opposite.

  An ominous creaking noise started to sound from the golden column.

  Working quickly, Ash put his entire focus into guiding the Qi Sea. Pushing it all in one direction. Making it all go clockwise at the same time.

  Sloshing and throwing Qi around in massive waves, he brought the Sea to heel. As the ocean ceased to churn, stopped throwing rogue waves at the column, and became a giant whirlpool, Ash felt his very soul still.

  Slowly, the column was revealed as the center and the focal point of the whirlpool.

  Rapidly, the width of the entire column expanded by several feet, bricks practically appearing from thin air. Faster and faster it went, spiraling ever higher.

  In no time at all, it reached the highest point, and then kept going.

  Higher and higher it went. Reaching ever closer for the ceiling of the Dantian.

  “…im alo…” said a faint voice.

  “…ver. We ne—”

  “No!”

  Something sharp and wicked pierced Ash. He felt it when it slipped through his defenses, passed right through his shield, and spit his Dantian on a thin skewer of Essence.

  His eyes snapped open, and he was face to face with the Deng elder. A palm was pressed to Ash’s middle, and there was no hiding what the man had just done.

  Or had tried to do.

  Yue had spent considerable time strengthening everyone’s Dantians. Giving them a daily regimen of medicine made to directly build up the toughness of their cores.

  So that if the Deng family tried something like this, it’d fail outright. Or so the hope was.

  Rather than reveal that it hadn’t worked, Ash knocked the elder’s hand away and stumbled backward.

  Tala was on him in an instant. It was obvious she’d been trying to fight off the elder, who was considerably stronger than her.

  The elder’s eyes followed Ash as he moved. As if weighing whether he should do more.

  Not waiting to find out what he’d do, Ash immediately began limping back towards h
is team, Tala aiding him directly.

  As he did so, Ash realized the atmosphere had changed. Changed and become a hellscape.

  Cultivators were battling with others all over the yard.

  His team was hunkered down behind a half shield of Water Essence. All over the place, the Deng clan was attacking anyone who wasn’t part of them.

  “It would seem they don’t care about the results. This feels like it was little more than a distraction to bring you and your friends out,” Locke said. “That or they didn’t want to slow down whatever they were planning, and this was just an option to draw someone else out of more importance.”

  Whatever. Either way I feel like we miscalculated here.

  “Yes. Yes, we did. To be fair, this feels reckless and aggressive. It lacks planning and finesse.”

  Watching as a Deng clan member literally stabbed an unaffiliated cultivator through the chest, Ash couldn’t help but agree.

  Emphatically so.

  “Is he watching?” Ash asked, leaning heavily into Tala’s side. “Elder Deng.”

  Tala snatched a look over her shoulder. “No.”

  Ash gently pushed Tala away and started sprinting for his team. Seeing him coming, Jia opened a small hole in her screen for himself and Tala to blow through.

  “What do we do?” Jia asked him when he got to her.

  “We get the fuck out,” Ash said back. “Gen is going to start gathering our forces, I imagine, and get working on this.

  “The best thing we can do is get out of the way.”

  “I don’t really see that as an option,” Mei said.

  “I have an option, but… it’ll be strange,” Ash said.

  “I think strange is a valid option right now,” Yue said.

  All around them, the Essence bubble shuddered. More and more unaffiliated cultivators were escaping or dying.

  Leaving Deng clan members able to turn their attention to Ash and his team.

  “Fine, ok. We’re going to go into my storage ring,” Ash said.

  “What? Storage items do not work like that,” Jia countered.

  “I’ll keep an eye out here. Once it’s clear, we can discuss options. And if you so desire, I can bring you all back when you decide its time,” Locke promised.

  “Mine does. Time to go—hold on everyone,” Ash said.