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Gotham's Dead End Bar Ch.61
🕑 Added 2025-03-23 01:14:40 +0000 UTC— Sean —
Traveling out past the Source Wall and through the Void Between to other realities and clusters could’ve been instantaneous… But really, where was the fun in that? Every vacation needed downtime. To relax, to comfortably simmer, to truly appreciate the break from it all you were giving yourself.
So instead of traveling in an instant, Didi and I settled in for the ride. We surfed the Void Between, our course set and nothing that lurked there truly able to touch us. There was Madness and Malice all around, for certain. But Death and her Prince Consort paid it no mind.
It was the road trip to end all road trips, yet also, only the first. Who could say they’d traversed the Void Between with only an otherwise unassuming van separating themselves from utter oblivion? It was a unique feat, even for me, even for Didi. And it just made the first vacation of my retirement that much more fun.
Out the windows, the Void writhed. It was a churning sea, and yet… nothing at all. An ever-shifting kaleidoscope of something so close to energy, something so close to matter, and yet… not at all. The Void was nothingness, and yet… the beginning and end of all that could ever be.
From not-quite-waves, incomprehensibly massive tentacles rose like snakes summoned from a basket. They whipped about, in and out of view across distances that didn’t really matter in the Void. But on our ride through, Didi and I brought Death so that even the things here could understand it. The curious eldritch beast didn’t bother us in the end as a result.
The Void bubbled like boiling asphalt beneath our wheels. Eyes and antennae and even tongues ‘looked’ up at us between the bubbles. Curious, curious things that’d never known anything Real. We let them look so long as they didn’t do any harm. And when an impish creature reached for the van, I swatted it like a puppy with a rolled-up newspaper.
On and on, we continued. Both forever and no time at all. It was a… strange but pleasant experience. One we likely couldn’t chance again if we wanted to take others on vacation with us. Didi and I could handle the Void Between. The others would go Mad, age to dust, and be born all over again. Jetlag had nothing on Void travel…
Still, Didi and I enjoyed the experience while we could. We were comfy-cozy inside the van. It had everything we’d ever need, and then some. I’d hired Hephaestus, Hecate, and some others to put the marvelous vehicle together. And Didi and I both put our own touches on the final product, of course.
The styling was all me. We were going to be traveling and experiencing things, new and old. The only suitable vessel for that was a ‘hippie van’, in my mind. The Dead End had its own Mystery Machine now. It even looked like one, only the psychedelic flowers and jarring colors were replaced by a clean black and white palette and cute chibi skulls.
Didi loved it immediately. The kiss of gratitude I got from her was slow, lingering, and hinted at good times in my future. Just as it should be. We christened it as the ‘Vacay Vessel’ — after the Mystery Machine — and it was glorious.
In the end, this baby would survive the spontaneous birth of a whole new universe and keep on driving as if nothing happened. Both of us stamped it with our True Names so it would respond to our wills alone, for ease of use if nothing else. Furthermore, it was comfortable and spacious from the steering wheel to the trunk. The front bench was big enough for Didi and I to cuddle with room for another. And via magical and conceptual fuckery, we had a whole Home and method to return to the Dead End in an instant regardless of distance or dimension in the back.
Hephaestus built it strong and efficient. Hecate imbued the whole thing with Magic, leaving surprises that I was still finding (the alchemical coffee machine was a very nice touch). Dionysus fortified it against Madness. Ophis gave it a touch of Infinity. And Hestia made it a moving Home by divine decree.
Even Alice got in on the creation process, adding what was essentially a magical phone line so we could call her, all while claiming, “Not like I’m trying to check up on you or anything!”
She was so proud of that… As were Didi and I. It was her first venture into magical creation and a commendable first attempt at that. So our dear (earnest for once) daughter didn’t necessarily need to know that I had to put a few correcting touches on her work to make it actually work across the Void Between.
“This is an alien place,” Didi mused, leaning on my shoulder as we looked out the window and let the van do the ‘driving’. “Alien… but perhaps not wholly terrible.”
I couldn’t help but agree, “In the end, even the ‘nots’ here in the Void — not-life, not-Death, and not-reality most of all — follow patterns we might understand, despite not recognizing them outright.”
Didi nodded along, “It’s beautiful in a way. Hauntingly terrifying in another, even for me… especially for me. Not a mirror of everything we know, I don’t think. Just… something Other. And perhaps that’s okay all on its own.”
“This is why we travel,” I waved a hand at everything beyond the windshield. “To see things with our own eyes that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Good or bad, it’s certainly something new, something novel and noteworthy.”
“Mmm,” Didi hummed in agreement. “Well, whatever we see, I’m glad to do so by your side, Sean.”
I put an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her to me and smiling, “As am I, Didi. It wouldn’t be the same without you. Life wouldn’t be the same without you — mine and everyone else’s.”
“I wouldn’t mind inviting some of the others along on trips like this,” Didi said.
“Neither would I,” I nodded. “But they’ll always be additions. Not bad additions, mind you — but extra all the same. You and I will always be the constants, the core of these trips.”
Didi turned her face into my neck and I felt her smile on my skin, murmuring, “I think I can live with that~…”
“Now, I think I’ve seen enough of the Void for one serving,” I chuckled. “Shall we?”
Didi raised her head to look at me, her eyes twinkling, “We shall. As Harley might say, Dear… Punch it.”
My chuckle turned into an outright laugh, “You make me want to drift to our final destination!”
“And what’s stopping us from doing so?”
“Absolutely. Nothing. At all.”
Without taking my hand from Didi’s shoulder, my other came up to retake the wheel. I punched the pedal as Didi had requested. The Vacay Vessel shot forward through the Void. I cocked the wheel to one side and quickly swung it to the other. We spun into a grand drift and I tapped the brakes to keep us that way. Somehow, the traction of the Void beneath our tires was beautiful, just perfect for drifting. Our old-seeming girl went sideways like a show car.
Didi beamed a smile, giggling and whooping. That alone made the whole show worth it. Her infectious glee spread to my face like wildfire.
The Void Between bore witness to one of its first tastes of glorious reality, the pinnacle of everything that could be: a VW hippie van Tokyo drifting like there was no tomorrow. And at the apex of our drift nowhere and everywhere, I left them wanting more, opening a portal that we flew straight (sideways) through. Right on target, right to our destination. We arrived in that old world of mine spinning and laughing and just enjoying the silly things in life.
“Goodness~!” Didi giggled. “Did you see the face on that Outer God?”
“None of his eldritch pantheon will ever believe him!”
“And I wouldn’t even blame them. Honestly, Sean, were we trying to give the Void itself a conniption~?”
“If it thinks — or perhaps even if it doesn’t, in this case… No matter, everything and everyone are fair game for my bullshit,” I shrugged, grinning unrepentantly.
“Don’t I know it,” Didi fondly rolled her eyes. “Now, where exactly have we arrived, Dear?”
Looking around, all we could see was forested terrain in all directions. But that didn’t narrow things down at all. At the very least, I was certain we were in the right world. The dense and lively Qi in the… everything… couldn’t be mistaken for anywhere else. Here be cultivators, I was certain. Cultivators I very likely knew.
“Hmm…” I hummed, sticking out my tongue to taste the Qi more specifically. It had hints of… mystery… monsters… and misconceptions from those who didn’t live here for themselves.
Didi giggled at the sight of me with my tongue out. I, of course, defended myself, “Hey. It’s a perfectly valid method of Qi sensing.”
“Truly? Even if it looks so… silly? I can’t see the proud cultivators I’ve heard so much about stooping themselves to such a method.”
“Just because I’ve never seen anyone else use it, doesn’t mean it’s not perfectly valid.”
“It sounds to me like sticking your tongue in the wind is something unique to you, Sean.”
“Perhaps. But you have no way of proving that, so I’ll keep denying it until you do.”
“Does it at least help?” Didi asked. The look she was sending my way was fond in the extreme.
“It does,” I nodded. “I believe we’re in… the Wishing Woods. A southern-facing province of the Crimson Phoenix Empire. Practically on the opposite side of the Empire from where I usually spent my time. The Fa Ram is way to the North. And if I remember correctly, this province is held somewhat apart from the rest of the Empire. I’ve certainly never visited here specifically.”
“So this first stage of the trip will be new to both of us,” Didi concluded with an eager smile.
“Indeed, it will!” I grinned back. “So there’s nothing else to it! Exploration and adventure await, my dear! Into a forest the size of Appalachia, we set!”
“Oh, I can hardly wait for all the things we might see~…” Didi just about swooned at the thought.
“They won’t wait for us, either,” I teased. “We’ll just have to seek them out. And we can hardly do so in park. Pick a direction, my Death. We’re gloriously lost, so any will do.”
Didi played along, tapping a finger to her lips, “Hmm~… That one. No, that one. Yes, 300° from full forward here.”
“Is that arbitrary?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or do you know something that even I don’t?”
“We’ll just have to see, won’t we~?” Didi teased back.
And wasn’t that just part of the fun? I grinned as I turned the wheel and set us on the course Didi had selected. I also cut the van’s huffing and puffing as we began. We were running on pure Magic with a hint of Qi now. After all, it wouldn’t do to scare away the mysterious things we wished to see.
Utterly silent, our van crept forward. Even through untamed terrain and tangled undergrowth, the Vacay Vessel found no troubles. It defied logic and common sense that way. We could drive over an active lava flow just as easily as the most pristine of roads. Nothing would stand in the way of our exploration.
We forged a path that closed up behind us as if nothing was amiss. Through bushes and shrubs and mounted roots. Even the wildlife native to the forest would’ve had trouble matching our progress. Life of all shapes and forms made way for Death. Yet we were a gentle touch, barely noticeable. And the interconnected system native to these Wishing Woods carried on as if we didn’t exist.
The air itself was heavy and invigorating with natural Qi. Every breath felt like Life, and I let out a blissful sigh as the familiar cycle of cultivating Qi within me simultaneously began anew and had never stopped in the first place. The legacy of my past life never left me, not truly. But here in its natural environment, it settled back home beautifully.
The trees here were tall and the forest floor was wild. Beams of spectacular sunlight peeked through the canopy high above. Yet half of the forest floor we drove over was still shadowed and protected, almost hidden away. Visible only to eyes that dared to venture deep within for themselves…
The scenes around us were both soothingly peaceful and viscerally wild. Here and there, trees wider than the van stood strong and tall, having undoubtedly done so for a millennium or more. More common were trees of a more mortal size, the species as foreign as the scene was familiar.
Some trunks reached straight above. Others bent over, tangled with their peers, and even grew together. More still were fallen and broken, but not out of place — never out of place. The broken boughs and hollow logs added texture. Between them all, pure life painted the ground — sprouts and shrubs, moss and wild grasses, and of course, fungus galore.
“Ivy would love this place,” Didi sighed fondly. “So wild, so free, so utterly untouched.”
“She would,” I nodded. “I’m curious, though… I honestly expected the foliage here to be older.”
“Older?” Didi raised an eyebrow, gesturing at a specific trunk that stood thick and knotted with strong, exposed roots. “That one is celebrating its 1,299th year right now, Dear. Isn’t it a beautiful thing when even the trees have enough Life to celebrate another year?”
“Without a doubt. Qi is a blessing that almost nothing in existence else can match — or match in the same way, at least. But for this world? A millennium and change is nothing,” I said. “There are Human cultivators older than that noble, birthday sapling by magnitudes of four or five. And that’s without mentioning the civilizations or the True Spirits of Earth, Sea, and Sky. No, this portion of the forest is young, I’m certain. We must be near the edges of the province.”
“Truly?” Didi blinked. “I thought this was already rather impressive.”
“Oh, it is,” I confirmed, grinning. “But that just means there are even more impressive sights awaiting us. In a world where even the grass can potentially cultivate to immortality, a thousand-year-old forest is only the beginning.”
“Auspicious beginnings, though,” Didi noted. “Earth would be hard-pressed to match a forest like this in the modern age. Even this ‘edge’ portion must stretch for miles upon miles.”
“3% of the province, at most,” I estimated dismissively. “You’re still thinking on Earth’s scale. This world is massive. I never truly figured out if it was even a sphere and not a nigh-endless plane of existence. This province alone is bigger than the US’s Eastern Seaboard if I remember correctly. And it’s considered a small province within the Crimson Phoenix Empire.”
“A strange, foreign reality,” Didi smiled softly. “I suppose I should abandon the ‘facts of life’ that I usually take for granted, no?”
“As a rule, I’d say to take everything you know and recognize, and then add more,” I advised. “Larger, deeper, higher, more profound and conceptual and powerful — generally just… MORE. I always theorized it’s a product of Qi itself — pushing everything to fulfill its every potential and then exceed it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Didi said with an indulgent sigh. “But if I can’t take anything on the scale I’m familiar with for granted, you’ll just have to enlighten me, Sean. For once, you know reality better than I~… Will you be my guide~?”
“Always and forever,” I stated firmly and instantly. “But for now, we’ll begin with what I know of these ‘Wishing Woods’. Mind you, I never visited here for myself, even during that long, long life. So most if not all of this will be hearsay. But I do have a few interesting tidbits to share.”
“Do I have to beg~?” Didi teased.
“I wouldn’t say no to a kiss as payment,” I cheekily shot back.
A moment later, Didi laid a featherlight kiss on my cheek, tracing my jaw with her lips, “… Half up front. And the other half after you’ve satisfied my curiosity, Dear.”
“Sold!” I declared before continuing with a chuckle. “Now, the Wishing Woods… As I said, we’re in the southern half of the Empire. There’s a province or two ‘below’ us — along with more inhabited lands that aren’t technically provinces of the Empire. Yet, most likely… — and three straight north until you’d reach the Sea of Snow — the Phoenix Rest Plains with the capital of the Empire, the Yellow Rock Plateau, and then the Azure Hills where the Fa Ram is. The Green Stone Forest and Raging Waterfall Gorge are also north, but they trend more eastward in a vague latitude line with the Phoenix Rest Plains. Then, the Soaring Heaven’s Archipelago floats in the sky above the ocean to our northwest.”
“I think I’d like to see this Soaring Heaven’s Archipelago at some point,” Didi considered.
“I’ll add it to the itinerary. Still with me, though?” I asked.
Didi nodded, listening intently, “I believe I’m building a mental map of this Empire, yes. I just have to keep in mind that each of these provinces is comparable to the largest countries on Earth.”
“Exactly. But cultivators are more than bullshit enough to hold such a massive Empire together,” I said. “Still, some are more… integrated… than others. The Wishing Woods are… certainly not excluded, per se, but they are somewhat separated. This is considered something of a frontier province, even for an immortal Empire of cultivators. Not even the Phoenix Emperor knows what goes on in the deepest and darkest depths of these woods. And while the locals and natives are Imperial citizens, the whole province mostly keeps to itself. They lived in their ways for thousands of years before the Empire, and after being incorporated, they just… kept on living the way they always lived.”
I continued, “But these lands are rich, exceedingly so. Too rich to ignore completely. Now, only the most northern 1/10th is truly settled and actively exploited by the rest of the Empire. And that’s already enough to satisfy demand. From mortal resources like lumber, hunting, and foraging to cultivation resources like spiritual flora, fauna, and Qi treasures.
“From what I know, it’s… an acceptable situation for the local natives. They’ve essentially ceded that northern 10th to the Phoenix Emperor as a tribute and stay south. I’m excited to meet them. All of the stories I’ve heard of them paint an intriguingly tribal — druidic, even — picture. Their cultivators are all said to be one with the land here, in a way that sounds very, very familiar… But I’ll wait to meet them for that final judgment.”
“Oh, how mysterious and promising~…” Didi tittered. “Don’t tell me, though. I think I’d like to see if I can figure it out for myself.”
“Without any bias, you’ll have a better shot of figuring it out than the natives of this world. If it is what I suspect, of course,” I chuckled. “To a cultivator, the concept I’m thinking of is almost anathema. But that’s what makes it so much fun.”
“Now,” I clapped, continuing. “I have one last bit of trivia to share. It’s… perhaps the most well-known facet of this province to the rest of the Empire. Rarely, someone will venture deep into these woods… So deep that they’re lost to the rest of the world. And there, they’ll whisper a wish. And there are stories… about those wishes coming true. That’s where the province’s name comes from: the ‘Wishing’ Woods.”
“Love that,” Didi grinned. “But I can’t imagine it’s as simple as you’ve made it out to be. If it even is real, that is.”
“I think there’s some truth to it,” I said. “But you’re right. One doesn’t just walk into the woods with a wish on their lips. They’d have to survive everything thrown at them. Even Sky Realm cultivators would be cautious in these deep woods. There are also stories of the wishes being turned back on the wisher, of course. For success, you likely have to win over… Something… that pervades these woods.”
At my words, Something… blinked. The sensation came from beneath the ground, between the trees, and down from the canopy, all at once. It was only with transcendent senses that I felt anything. Didi felt it as well. She shared an excited grin with me, but by some passing agreement, we both stayed quiet as if nothing caught our attention.
Something… felt us arrive. Something… watched us and trailed our progress through its woods. Something… was very, very curious.
It felt a bit like Death and a bit like Life. But mostly, it felt like THE fundamental building block of the forest, of the land, of everything here. But for now, we left that… Something… to follow and peek through the cracks.
Meanwhile, Didi and I drove on. As we did, we finally started to see wildlife, as if… Something… had given tentative approval for us to peek into its system as it peeked at us. It started small. Simple. Mortal. But steadily, we began to see more and more as the hours passed by.
Songbirds sang from the rooftops of the canopy and flitted between the lower branches. A rabbit popped out of the undergrowth, just to dart back in and disappear just as quickly. A fox frolicked as readily as it stalked that same rabbit. A herd of deer grazed with the graceful stag at its head looking around, constantly alert. A badger staked its claim on its burrowed home, snarling and barking at a snake that sought entrance. An aerial raptor much like a goshawk swooped and darted through the trees, pushing off one trunk mid-flight to dive at a shrew that didn’t quite make it to the underbrush.
Throughout it all, there was… not peace, but stability. A cycle. A system. Not a perfectly planned or organized one, but something that’d worked for millions of years and would continue to work for millions upon millions more. A chaotic orchestra and ever-shifting natural choreography for me and Didi to observe but not intrude upon. Kept Deathly silent, our van’s passing became just another part of the system here.
The scene changed as we progressed through the forest. Darker, deeper, we left the ‘shallows’. An apt analogy. The Wishing Woods were like an ocean — vast, diverse, and progressively mysterious. We’d arrived in something akin to a coastal paradise. A coral reef, even, teeming with life. A self-contained, self-sufficient system within the greater ecosystem of the province-wide woods. But eventually, we took the plunge off the metaphorical continental shelf.
At the ‘edge’, mortal wildlife suddenly ceased to appear. As if they didn’t dare go out this far. The colors of the forest dimmed and the songs faded to eerie silence. The brown of tree trunks turned almost black. The vibrant shades of green — ivy and leaf and moss — darkened, richer in Qi but warning of more danger as well. The trees began to reach higher and higher, blocking out more and more light with their canopies. Even the shadows themselves deepened, hanging heavy with the increasing Qi.
Life could still survive and thrive off the ‘shelf’, but only at greatly increased risk.
The day turned to twilight, dusk, and night, even while I could still sense the sun high above in a noon position. And then… the beasts came out. Each sighting of lively wildlife was rarer here, spread across vast bestial territories and influenced by the power that could be grasped ‘off the shelf’. But that just made each one a unique and fascinating event in itself.
The first Spirit Beast we saw was feline in nature. Anywhere else, it would’ve been a simple bobcat. But in this world, in these woods, Qi had more of a say than any diet or evolutionary success. And so, the ‘simple bobcat’ stood as tall as a man, with prodigious, padded paws each the size of a torso.
It looked as if it’d been utterly drained of color, with no brown or tan or white in sight. Instead, only shadows shifted across its coat, incorporated within the fur in varying shades of gray-and-black-scale camouflage. It stalked in the shadows of the trees, one with each patch of darkness it crossed.
Didi exhaled with breathless awe, “Oh, it’s beautiful. Just gorgeous. And-! And so Lively~! I’ve rarely met a beast with such concentrated Life energy!”
“That’d be the Qi and cultivation,” I explained. “Some say Qi is power or magic. It’s not. In truth, it’s Life. Pure Life that is gathered, internalized, and expended just like any other energy cycle, deepening and expanding everything it touches in the process.
“And Humans are far from the only ones to cultivate it. Spirit Beasts just like this one have been doing so for longer, and the True Spirits of Earth, Sky, and Sea for even longer still. This Spirit Beast isn’t even all that powerful. Early stages of the Profound Realm at most.”
“And already so fierce, so Alive…” Didi admired before nodding. “I believe I can put words to your ‘More’ warning from earlier. It’s ‘More Life’, Sean. Qi is Life energy, and so much of it makes for Life like I’ve never experienced before. This reality is ‘More’ because it’s fundamentally more alive. From the men to the beasts to the very world itself.”
I paused to consider that for a moment, “… Yeah, that tracks. Sort of like… Life+. So much so that it even leaks into the underlying concepts and understandings of reality.”
“There should be an imbalance…” Didi considered. “On an Endless scale, at least. But I don’t sense anything wrong or amiss. So for all of this, ahem… ‘Life+’, there must be an equal weight of Death in this reality. Hmm…”
I raised an eyebrow, “I would say the Demons and their Demonic Realms… but, no, that doesn’t seem quite right. Perhaps the counter-balance is just Death? After all, even the strongest beings in this realm can still die. The only immortality possible here is in the moment of ascension. But I can say from personal experience that everything sort of… starts all over again afterward. Ascended beings don’t stay immortal in the next realm up.”
“Yes, that would contribute, but… Ah, I know what it is,” Didi gave a soft, delighted smile of realization. “That moment of ascension, that moment of immortality. Even fleeting, it would be a moment of perfect balance between Life and Death. That’s the last thing needed at an overarching Endless level to fully balance the scales. Death first and always, then Life+ building up and up to match it, and then, that one perfect moment of both in the ascension before it starts all over again.”
I cocked my head as I ran that through my mind, “That… shouldn’t make as much sense to me as it does. I think you’re rubbing off on me, my Death.”
Didi pressed herself to my side like a cat, chuckling, “Always~…”
I squeezed her in an embrace, “Well, as fascinating as the metaphysics of this all are, we came here to see and experience, not theorycraft. Onward?”
“Onward. Always.”
We saw more Spirit Beasts as we continued through the ‘open woods’. It seemed the Qi ‘off the shelf’ was dense and rich enough that mortal animals simply ceased to be. Every life here had Ignited their Qi, most even born so. From the Initiate Realm to the Earth Realm, they prowled these lands. Hunting. Mating. Surviving and thriving. Living, most of all.
Each was unique. Each was glorious. A tortoise with an earthen shell, walking around with a sprouting sapling on its back.
A bus-long serpent that coiled its way up trees, only to spring off them and weavingly glide its way through the forest, more at home in the air between branches than on the forest floor.
A great stag with sprawling metal antlers and metallic leaves growing from them like branches.
An otherwise unassuming (if individually massive) wolfpack, yet I could sense one shared, overarching intelligence among them — a pack mind.
A surprisingly tiny woodpecker — just about its mortal size — with sword intent like a master, sawing through and felling an ancient tree in only a second with a few pecks.
We spent hours essentially just on safari. Just watching the powerful Spirit Beasts in their natural habitat. This one could run straight over a city, that one could eat their way through a whole mountain, and each one was beautiful in its own way.
I doubted many, if any, Humans got the chance to see what we saw. Not even those native to these woods. But thanks to powerful bullshit fuckery, Didi and I didn’t disturb a single blade of grass as we passed. And that gave us a glimpse into the world as it would be if we weren’t even there.
Eventually, though, our unintrusive observation came to an end. A certain scent of Qi on the wind caught my attention. Human Qi… Wild and cultivated and somewhat in tune with the land all at once. My interest was certainly piqued. I pointed it out to Didi, taught her to sense the way I was (she was a natural at sensing Life energy, but no surprise there), and soon she was just as curious as me.
I changed our course to follow the scent. Curiously… Something… seemed to be leading us in that direction as well. The same sensation of intelligence which pervaded the whole woods to a degree. The same… Something… that’d been following us since we arrived. Certain spots on the ground spontaneously popped and snapped to get our attention, each next to a patch of fungus…
Then, as we followed the sounds and the Qi scent, more fungi came alive to lead us farther. Some puffed clouds of sparkling spores, looking like will o’ wisps in the shadowy depths of the woods. Others bent at their stalks to point the way with their mushroom caps. Soon enough, the… Something… settled on a method it preferred and a bioluminescent road of toadstools, shelf mushrooms, and banners of lichen led the way.
We heard our destination before we saw it. There wasn’t any way to miss the chaotic cacophony. Something very, very big was running rampant right out of sight. Trees crashed and the earth shook. Moments later, it burst into view. Built like four steamtrain engines in a cube (and likely with twice the combined horsepower), the rampaging Spirit Beast revealed itself to be a boar. Because of course, it would be devil-spawn like that…
Instead of fur, it had scales like a dragon, sparkling jade green in the rare rays of light that reached through the canopy this deep in the woods. It looked like a polished figurine made massive and deadly, and the tusks only furthered that appearance. They were — quite literally — carved jade, inscribed with patterns and formations as if jewelry created by a master craftsman. How, I didn’t know. But the end result was as beautiful as it was devastating.
The Spirit Beast was certainly living up to its boar-ish nature, though. Pure anger, pure destruction, and pure ‘Fuck You’. Almost nothing stood in its path. Not millennia-old trees, not eon-old rocks, nothing except… a single Human cultivator.
She was young-looking, but you could never be certain of things like age by appearance with cultivators. More telling on that front was the ‘flavor’ of her Qi: still developing, still deepening, and still drawing itself up to a unique whole. I’d say she was 30 at most. Really rather young for this world. Furthermore, she carried herself with a certain ‘air’ I recognized. It’d been a long time, but I knew a ‘Young Mistress’ when I saw one.
In this case, the Young Mistress was quite unlike the others I’d seen. She was beautiful, of course. But with genuinely shimmering dusky skin instead of pale porcelain. With dreaded locks of white hair in a practical arrangement instead of flowing curtains of quintessentially (and vaguely) Asian black. With fine furs and masterwork leathers instead of supple silk robes. And with a three-bladed ring weapon that she seemed lethally proficient with, even if she wasn’t currently getting the chance to use it…
[First is best, second is decent, third is... ehhh... The colors are right, at least.]
Everything she wore and everything she carried bore the touch of her Qi signature. She’d personally slain every beast, personally claimed every pelt of fur, and personally crafted every tool and weapon. It was a refreshing change from the Young Mistresses I was familiar with. But there was no denying that she was still a cultivator. Just… one of a different culture and tradition.
Even against overwhelming odds, the woman stood strong and proud. Just as a cultivator should. And the odds were overwhelmingly not in her favor. She was at the First Stage of the Spiritual Realm. No small potatoes as far as cultivators went, not at all. But her breakthrough to that new realm was recent, I could tell. And against the opponent she faced, only enough to let her barely survive.
The Jade Boar was a whole realm above her: First Stage of the Earth Realm, though it’d likely just taken that step, mirroring its current foe. Like all boars, it was an ANGRY motherfucker. The blinding blood rage worked somewhat in the woman’s favor, but it was still a miracle and a testament to the woman’s skill that she’d lived this long. That she hadn’t been squashed and gored instantly.
There was just about nothing she could do to strike back at the Spirit Beast, though. She survived so far… but it was only a matter of time.
The Jade Boar lunged, shaking its head and tusks to devastating effect. A whole tree came off the ground, torn out by its roots. The cultivator woman just barely dodged in time, darting off the tree before it was torn apart. Still, the boar followed her without losing a step.
Instead of running away, the intriguing Young Mistress took refuge in audacity. A bold strategy, especially against a boar… But it seemed to work for a moment. She turned around and ran straight up the Jade Boar’s snout. Instantly, its head bucked and she was sent flying. With the grace of a cultivator, of a hunter, she recovered in mid-air and seemed to fly in truth.
Just then, the light hit both parties just right. The boar shined with soft jade fluorescence. The unorthodox Young Mistress did as well, glowing with a shade of blue that was unmistakably similar to the bioluminescence that led us to her. She was favored by… Something… But more than that…
I let out a snort of laughter and realization as the sight hit me, “Oh! Oh, I get it. Jade Beast vs. Jade Beauty. Truly, I missed this world. What do you say, my Death? Should we lend a hand to the young lady this… Something… seems so fond of?”
“Well…” Didi pretended to consider the question before breaking into an excited smile. “A guide would be a nice change of pace right about now, wouldn’t it~?”
IIIII
[AN: This vacation arc should be decently long. 30k words maybe? Not quite sure yet. I have four chapters planned for it, but we’ll see how that develops. The Wishing Woods here is entirely my own homebrew. It has a few secrets that I’m excited to reveal, but Sean and Didi won’t be spending all of their vacation there. The last chapter or two should be within the rest of the Empire, mostly concerning the Big Three Sects (Soaring Heaven’s Isle, Cloudy Sword Sect, and Sovereign Sword Sect — the Emperor’s ‘personal’ sect) and then Sean’s Endgame buddies making a surprise appearance in the ‘Level One’ world lol.
But until we get there, enjoy my attempts at adding to CasualFarmer’s worldbuilding. I’ve really only got one thing to tease about the Wishing Woods right now (other reveals will come later)… Native American Monster Hunter Cultivators. Look forward to much more on that next chapter! (P.S. I do mean ‘Monster Hunter’ as in the games. Spirit Beasts and Cultivators are just chef’s kiss perfect for that. And yes, I do have a Gemma expy in the works lol.)]
IIIII
Bonus Pics (sauce below)
Comments
Drake Serr
I had just finished rereading it and decided to check if you had added more chapters. I am so happy that I did and just binged read the 3 companion chapters and the 4 new ones. Can't wait for the next one.
QuantumServer
Thanks for the chapter!
KingSpy25i .
Thank you for the chapter 🙏
Vilmer
I haven’t finished the chapter. But since they’re going to his last world, he should drive over that rival of his, stick his head out the window and say "I lived, Haha!"
Kz3838
Thank you for the great chapter, stay safe out there and keep up the good work!
ExodiaTheForbiddenOne
Amazing work as always dry keep it up !
RackOfLife
Lowkey thought LOTM would be first 😅
dryskies_btb
Sauce Rose 1: sarab.lue 2: AI 3: AI Bonus 1: xoli mfeka 2: sunnyrayxo 3: mushyee 4: uyuy2907 5: uniquesora 6: mika.mae.main 7: mommyanna 8: skyexsummers
