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RM 38: On The Horizon (V)
🕑 Added 2024-10-08 17:50:52 +0000 UTCA week had elapsed after Yingyue and Wang Yang had their midnight discussion. Since then, she had taken it upon herself to be his sparring partner as Kexin and Lingling busied themselves in their practice.
Her ample experience shone through the tips she gave Wang Yang. Muchen also kept an eye on them from a distance. This exchange with Yingyue would bring about substantial growth in his disciple, a type of growth that came without hardship in exchange.
Wang Yang sat on the soft dirt, his sword on his lap. His eyes closed as the mind went into meditation. The white qi flared up for a moment before forming an even layer alongside his body. Taking that sign, he placed his right hand on the sword’s handle and exhaled.
The stable qi encroached on the sword an inch at a time, pushing back the silver qi that the blade exuded. Beads of sweat ran down Wang Yang’s forehead as he tried to match the sword’s wavelength with his qi. The pathways in the sword were much like the one he had, thin, numerous, and complex. However, moving Qi outside his body became several times harder.
Even after he memorized the pathway pattern and structure of the sword, it was like transversing a maze without sight.
“Guh!” Wang Yang fell flat on his back as the sword’s rejection sent his arm reeling.
“You were halfway there, such a shame.” Yingyue muttered from the nearby rock.
“I…Is it normal for it to hurt this much?” Wang Yang groaned. His hand still trembled in agony.
“Normally it shouldn’t hurt that much, but it looks like you have weaker mental resistance than normal. So, the pushback is more prominent.” Yingyue said.
“That’s bad.” Thinking that he’d have to go through the same pain over and over till he succeeded didn’t help at all.
“Don’t feel down. Connecting half of the Qi pathways in sword after only one month of training, your talent is clear. It shouldn’t take you more than a few months to become a full-fledged sword cultivator. That’s faster than 80% of them, so bear with it.” Yingyue smiled.
“I almost don’t feel the pain anymore.” Wang Yang laughed.
He left to give Li Muchen a report on his daily training as usual. And after hearing of his results, a small party was in order. Leaving them in the main cabin, he had left the cavern for preparations.
“…So, what should we do with this break while Master is out gathering ingredients?” Kexin asked.
The one who got them this brief four-hour break and feast was her. She succeeded in forming a pill from the seeds and passed the test for alchemy with flying colors.
“I am going to explore the caves.” Wang Yang stood up.
There were about five caves inside the cavern and they ran deep from what they had seen so far. But aside from Li Muchen, no one had entered them yet.
“There you go again.” Kexin sighed.
“Don’t be like that, there could be treasures in there.” His eyes were already shining at the prospect. “Even if we don’t find anything, it can be a fun experience.”
“I suppose there’s no harm in it.” Yingyue supported it.
Muchen had told them that they were free to move in the cavern, including the caves. Kexin decided to follow the upbeat Wang Yang with Yingyue tagging along.
Sun Lingling stayed behind to rest while Zhi Rou remained for watch duty in Muchen’s place.
“This one smells like a treasure.” Wang Yang nodded facing the cave behind Kexin’s cabin.
“What are you, a Gold-seeking rat?” Kexin asked.
“Not that I am aware of? Maybe I have a nose of one?” He laughed.
The cave had nothing of note aside from starting in the rock wall, just like the other caves in this place. However, Wang Yang’s steps seemed confident as he led the other two with a luminous stone lamp.
“Slow down, and watch your step.” Kexin chided him.
The slippery and rocky surface of the cave didn’t give them much trouble. But the high ceiling was adorned with stalactites, sharp and jagged, like nature’s frozen daggers. So, a sense crisis loomed over their heads.
The only good was that the tunnel wasn’t deep, it took them 20 minutes to come in front of a rock wall marking the end.
“There wasn’t anything special aside from the stalactites.” Yingyue couldn’t feel anything special even after she examined the walls.
If anything, the place seemed too ordinary.
“That was a waste of time, let's head back then.” Kexin had already turned around when a bright flash of light came from behind, dying the cave white.
“Gah!” The high intensity of the light blinded Yingyue.
After two breaths the light died down. Kexin turned around and noticed Yingyue had her eyes closed, still maintaining her balance thanks to the wall.
“…Yang?” However, she couldn’t find Wang Yang.
The lamp that should’ve been in his hand rolled to her feet. The jagged rock wall from before now had thousands of intricate lines. The geometrical pattern formed by these lines along with cursive letters along the circumference pulsated with white light, the same light that had shone a moment before. What happened was easy to understand.
“Xiao Yang!” With a scream, she tried to rush towards the rock wall.
“Kexin, calm down. You can’t rush in like that.” Yingyue caught the panicked Kexin based on the sound, her voice akin to a calm lake. “These types of traps are rare, so touching them carelessly can lead to damage stranding Wang Yang on the other side. We must contact Senior Li immediately. I’ll stay here so don’t worry and go.”
“Y…Yes.” Clenching her fist, Kexin rushed out of the cave.
***
After he received the call, Li Muchen wasted no time to make his way back. Entering the cave, he came face to face with the culprit of this situation, the Translocation Formation.
“This wasn’t here when I checked the place.” Muchen noticed the presence of rock powder just below the formation, another new component compared to before.
“It looks like its lines were hidden. With properties similar to Heaven Binding stone it is no wonder this went undetected.” Yingyue’s rubbed her pained eyes.
Even to make contact with Muchen they had to leave the cavern as Qi couldn’t escape this mountain nor could it enter from outside. Thus, a simple layer of rock could turn formation detection devices useless in here.
“This is rather worrisome.” Li Muchen muttered examining the formation. “A formation made using the Five Phases structure. It only works when the perfect balance of five elements is present. But this formation is broken in one place with deterioration along its core structure. Logically it shouldn’t even activate, much less work.”
Muchen stared at the missing part of the outer circle of this formation. It was around his shoulder’s height, there a familiar qi lingered in the gap wide enough for one finger.
“So, that means Wang Yang was able to connect the formation with his body.” Yingyue noticed it too. “If that is true then…”
“His body has a perfect balance of five elements. His finger happened to connect the broken line.” Li Muchen sighed, he had seen and heard of such cases multiple times. “This was simply dumb luck.”
The situation left Yingyue flabbergasted.
Formations weren’t that simple. For someone to connect a broken formation with their finger perfectly while having the perfect qi to run it? The odds for that were so low that no one bothered to calculate. However, it happened right in front of her.
“Yingyue, relay the information to others. I’ll have to fix this formation, that is the only way to bring Wang Yang back.” He said, taking out a scroll from his storage ring.
“As you wish... Kexin seemed worried, what should I tell her?” Yingyue asked.
“Tell her to get used to it.” He said.
With a wry smile, she walked towards the exit. Cruel, but that was the best thing they could tell Kexin now that they had become cultivators.
Left alone, Muchen unfurled his scroll. On the yellow paper spread on the floor were drawings of numerous tools. Picks, hammers, chisels, brushes, needles, pikes, rulers, clay, and colors.
There was no mention of this formation in the future. Wang Yang had stumbled across something that neither the Demonic Cultivators or the Alliance found. All that just because he happened to be the perfect puzzle piece that touched the perfect point.
If he had touched any other point on the formation, the structure would’ve collapsed. Burying the secret behind it.
“For now, I have to restore the missing part and the damage done to it by time.” The formation had other cracks too, they hadn’t broken the circuit yet but a few more uses could do that.
Formations came in many forms. Special flags and stones needed to be arranged in perfect order to form a majority of them. Some eccentric people exchanged the stones for gems, trees, or cloth. As long as they could arrange a set number of Qi conductive element, the Formation masters would use it.
However, this formation was ancient. It belonged to a time when the entire formation was created at once. Such formations had potent power, but as long as a single fault roused its head in the structure the entire formation would become scrap.
And Li Muchen had to repair a formation that teetered on the verge of scrap.
To start the repairs, he touched the drawing of the fine brush in the scroll. In the next moment the brush appeared in his hand, the brush was made of fine Horned horse’s tail hair with its horn for the body.
With the brush, he copied the array on a sheet of rice paper. Next, he closed in on the wall with a piece of glass. It was a fragment of Vidya Demon's mirror that allowed him to see Qi pathways embedded inside the stone.
Muchen couldn’t see them horizontally because of the stone’s property. So, he had to memorize the vertical order to match the pathways and connect the formation with proper measurements.
After noting it all down he drew a reference piece on the paper. Calculating the angles and curvature of the pathways and formation, even a single mistake could cause the formation to break.
The moment of truth. Li Muchen took the piece of transmuting clay from the scroll and tore out a fingernail-sized ball.
With closed eyes, he imagined the drawing of the piece he made in his mind. His Qi entered the clay mixed with the rock powder on the floor to kickstart the process. As soon as the clay gave a dim glow, he stuck it on the formation’s damaged part. His finger still touching the clay.
Under his guidance, the clay elongated and spread apart. As if it had a mind of its own it filled the crack and reformed the formation according to the numbers inputted. In the next moment, the clay turned into the same material as the rock face, giving it a dusty brown color. Taking a total 90 minutes to make this work.
“The residual flow of Qi seems good, but a little shaky.” The Qi moved about the lines uninterrupted, but to fortify the formation Muchen continued to use the clay and fill in the tiny cracks he noticed over the next three hours.
The formation was now born anew without a single leakage. Given the ancient design and deterioration of the formation, there weren’t many in the world who could fix it with such swiftness. The only reason Muchen could do this was because of his prepared tools and years of experience with formations and repairing them.
“I owe it all to this brat.”
Muchen slapped five elemental talismans on the formation, one at each gate of the corresponding element on the outer circle of the formation.
The qi flowed in from the gates and circulated in the outer circle each color trying to overlap the other. As it whirled the five-color line soon turned pure white. The now five-element qi bled into the inner circle, lighting up the heliographic symbols and patterns one at a time.
The formation turned white as a blinding flash washed over Li Muchen. His body floated as if the ground slipped beneath his feet. But the weightlessness remained for a moment before he found solid ground.
“Another cave… but I can’t tell the location.” Muchen looked back at the similar formation on the previous rock wall. But this one seemed in better condition, aside from warmer temperature.
The darkness of the cave was cut by a ray of light two steps in front of Muchen. It was one of the extra lamps he had his disciples carry around. The light was enough to make a portion of this cave visible.
The cave’s walls, floor, and ceiling were bone dry just like the corpse leaned against the wall. Facing the bony remains was a painting that hung on the opposite wall. Next to the corpse was a blue cover book, it yellowed pages open wide in the cave with no airflow.
There, Wang Yang sat crossed-legged right next to the metallic skeleton.
Muchen could read the words on the page from his position.
Harken, ye who dare gaze upon her countenance, for unless thine will be as unyielding as the firmament itself, thou shalt be consumed without quarter. Those of frail mind and spirit shall find no mercy in her, for she is fashioned in the likeness of the Creator.
Yet, I tell thee, no soul is more accursed than she within the Three Realms. To thee who read these words, I beseech thee—nay, I implore thee with all that I am—grant her peace.
Deliver her from her eternal suffering, and thou shalt be rewarded with a treasure for which even the Saints salivate.
Wang Yang faced the painting, with eyes wide open in horror. His pupils missing the sheen of life, as if his soul was whisked away.
Li Muchen clenched his hand. His eyes stayed on the words at the bottom of that painting.
The Descent of Goddess Nuwa.
“What has he gotten himself into?” His heavy question sunk into the murky air.
...
A/N:
The Heavenly luck strikes again, but it leads to something ominous(?) this time?
This chapter had a good chunk of info and had been set up from the moment they came in the cavern.
This arc has some real good moments that make me wonder Did I really write that?
Maybe it is just self boasting, but the chapters look good these days.
Also, I originally planned to do 5 chapters on Saturday. I even have the next chapter written out, but I just wasn't happy with a part of it so I have been rewriting it for the past few days.
And I still didn't get the desired result, so I decided to just post the chapters that were ready, I had already delayed it for like two days(?)
Well, tell me what you think about the chapters, and writing especially. If you find points that could be improved on do tell me, I am looking to get better.
That is all, bye bye.
