Chapter 125
Primordial Storm
Leo's eyes turned into slits as his heart churned.
The world seemed to be coming undone.
Just ten minutes ago, the skies above were perfectly clear, and the world was evergreen as it was day-to-day. And yet, in what felt like just a few seconds, it all changed. From seemingly nowhere, ashen clouds began to form, soon covering the sun and turning the entire world dark and gray. All sounds within the forest ceased; its entire ecosystem paused its living for a moment to either admire or fear the change.
At the same time, Leo felt something deep within him tingle, like a spark of lightning trying to burst out from some cocoon. There was a connection being formed—not with the ashen skies, no, but with what the ashen produced: black lightning.
Leo felt the kind of resonance that Yue and Liang mentioned they, too, felt back in the Cradle—except it was perhaps a bit more subtle.
"...it's here?" Azariel exclaimed in shock as he left the longhouse, prompting everyone to look over at him. They were all gathered, bearing witness to the change, silently ignorant.
"You know what it is?" Leo asked.
"It's the Primordial Storm," Azariel replied, joining them, his head craned towards the sky. "Though, it shouldn't be happening yet. Certainly not at this scale." Leo's frown deepened as he looked away from the man and toward the sky. There was something about the clouds that was reminiscent of that lake he briefly visited, though the clouds were far grayer than the lake.
"And this means... what?" Yue posed the question after momentary silence.
"It means that something that should have happened centuries from now," he replied. "Will happen within a year. Supposedly, there have only ever been two Primordial Storms--the first one when the world was created and the second one when the First Demons ascended. It's meant to herald a change that will have lasting ramifications on everything, as it distributes Primordial Qi all across the world rather than keeping it in safe clusters. I just... didn't think there was any Primordial Qi to distribute."
"...could it be us?" Yu Lang asked suddenly. "This resonance I feel... it can't be a coincidence."
"It's not," Azariel glanced over the rest of them. "Somehow—and I assume through Master Leo's handiwork—you all posses Primordial Qi in quantities that should not be possible. It wasn't as though there was no Primordial Qi back then—but trying to interact with it in any capacity meant certain death. Yet, all of you somehow not only interact with it, but you store it in lieu of ordinary Qi, something we pursued our entire lifetime. However, it's not enough—you still only possess trace amounts. It's enough to enhance your combat capabilities, but most of your Qi is still ordinary. Even if you pooled it all together, you wouldn't be able to produce a spark, let alone a bolt like those ones. No, this is... something else."
"And even you don't know what?" Leo asked.
"No," Azariel shrugged. "Don't take me for some expert on ancient lore. Most of what I know is what I heard in early-age schools when my interest couldn't be less."
"Well, let's hope nothing too awful comes out of it," Leo commented and shuffled around, starting fires to prepare a meal. The words lingered, though, and he felt he might have possibly jinxed them, if ever so slightly. Eh, I don't believe in jinxes; it should be fine...
**
Yu Minge frowned as he exited the meditation room and stepped out into the courtyard of his humble abode. The blue skies had darkened in what felt like a moment, ashen clouds dominating everything and dulling the world's colors.
Just then, a figure appeared beside him, streaking out of bubbling shadows. Xiaoling looked worse for wear, but Yu Minge understood—as a temporary Sect Leader, she worked tirelessly at every hour of every day. Had her cultivation method not been unique, Yu Minge suspected she would have even dropped a few realms with how little time she had to practice.
A frown hung on her face as well as she stared at the sky above, the same bewilderment in her eyes that existed in his.
"Do you feel it?" he asked.
"Hm," she nodded. "The bolts, they're of the same makeup as the kind of Qi that nearly killed you."
"Yes," he nodded back. "The world's changing, evidently."
"...you're already back at Soul Ascendance Realm?!" She exclaimed in shock as she finally paid him some attention instead of the sky. Yu Minge beamed with a strange sense of pride, something he hadn't done in nearly a century, grinning.
"Your Master is amazing, indeed."
"... unfair," she frowned. "Maybe I should visit Leo and ask him to do whatever he did to you."
"Do you suppose he's the cause of change?" Yu Minge asked, wondering what she felt.
"Rather than the cause," she said. "I feel he's more of a... product. Like a herald, of sorts. This would have happened either way; it's just that he happened slightly beforehand. Perhaps as a means to prepare us, or prepare something else, or perhaps purely by accident. We still don't really know where he came from, do we?"
"Not in the slightest," Yu Minge shrugged. "But I hardly feel that is a relevant point. You're right in your assessment—otherwise, he would not have had the means of curing me or affording me this opportunity. What role he has, or, indeed, we even have, in this entire play unfolding... I wonder."
"Word of warning," Xiaoling said. "The news has reached us that the Nascent Realm Cultivator is coming here. Alongside the news was a warning—he's a hedonist in want of wine and women more than anything. I'll do a lot of things for the Sect, but that's not one of them."
"Nor would I ask you or any of our Disciples," Yu Minge said. "Entertain him with politeness, at first. If he responds in kind, aid him in his investigation the best you can. However, if he tries anything out of the ordinary... well, the solution is simple, isn't it?"
"It is?"
"I will just kill him."
"..." Xiaoling flinched for a moment at his bold statement, and even Yu Minge felt it was a bit sacrilegious—while cross-realm fighting was a thing, and most talented cultivators had at least some capacity for it, the higher one's realm was, the more impossible of a feat it became. Already defeating someone of the Soul Ascendance Realm at the Avatar Realm was almost unprecedented, while killing someone at the Nascent Soul Realm was.
And yet, deep within, he almost knew that he could do it. There simply was no apt comparison to his strength before and his strength now—if the attack on the Sect happened today, he felt he could single-handedly repel it and do so without even breaking a sweat.
"You sound confident," she said.
"I am."
"Then am I to act and behave under the assumption that, from hereon, we will treat ourselves as a Tier V Sect?"
"It won't end there," he added.
"More bold proclamations, Master," she sneered. "I don't remember you being quite like this. Perhaps nearly dying has done irreparable damage to your brain."
"What an awful thing to say to your own Master," he chuckled. "But, is it enough of the jest, young Disciple? You, too, have felt the changes, undoubtedly."
"... hm," she nodded, looking away and toward the west, where the forest lay. It was well beyond their ability to see, separated by tens of miles of distance, but they both knew it stood as tall and as valiantly as ever. "If I had the time, I could break through to the Soul Ascendence Realm, I feel."
"Really?" Yu Minge exclaimed in surprise. "Let me see," she stretched out her arm, and he gently grabbed it, pressing his fingers against her wrist and sending in a tiny mote of Qi, shooting it through her body. He closed and opened his eyes as though in a blink, staring at her with a faint look of shock therein. "Your ailments... are completely gone." he said. It was even more of a shocker to him than the fact that she was on the precipice of breaking through.
"Yes," she nodded, her lips curling up into a rare, genuine smile. "It just... happened. Look at this." she added, conjuring a transparent dagger above her palm. The weapon danced softly in place, and upon closer inspection, Yu Minge recognized certain... oddities.
Though Xiaoling always forged her weapons from Qi, she had to infuse them with her Soul--that was both the biggest strength and the greatest drawback of her method. However, he couldn't find any trace amounts of her Soul in that weapon, yet it still felt as potent as ever before—even more, perhaps.
"I can use Qi to forge Soul Force," she said. "The ratio, at the moment at least, is rather abysmal. If, before, I could fight for an hour, I can now do so for about ten minutes. But when I first started trying, it was 30 seconds."
"... we owe a lot more than just our lives to that hermit, don't we?" Yu Minge sighed, smiling as well. "Do you think you can break through within three days?"
"Yes." she fired off within a second, as though she were waiting for him. He shook his head helplessly, patting her for a moment. Though she often eluded him, this time she stayed rooted in place, as though giving him 'payment' for the service.
"It will be an auspicious moment for our Sect," he said. "To have gotten a second Soul Ascendance Realm cultivator. Even the Pavilion only has three."
"Is the Pavilion really a threat if you can boldly proclaim you can kill a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"... don't underestimate that den of hypocrisy," he said, his tone faintly grave. "There is a reason they were the first Sect to form on these lands after the collapse of the Empire of the Moon and why they were the first sect to reach Tier IV. Have you ever wondered, thus, why they remained a Tier IV Sect? For almost 150 years now, even if they were made out of rock and dirt, they should have managed to become Tier V. And yet, they never did."
"A choice?"
"A choice," he nodded. "Their reach is webbed, extending far out from their tiny little hamlet. If you stir their nest, soon you will find hornets from all corners of the world converging on top of you."
"So, you're saying we stand no chance?"
"I didn't say that," Yu Minge glanced over and smiled faintly. "I am merely saying to know when to tangle with them. Acquiesce to the smaller things; stay clear of them the best you can, but if the call for war is issued... be merciless."
"Well, if you do end up killing that Central Ashlander," Xiaoling said. "I have a feeling there will be very few Sects and people willing to tangle with us in the future."
"Strength is absolute, Xiao'er, until it isn't," he said.
"Well, you would know. Ah, I'm sorry," she apologized even before the sound of 'know' disappeared from the world. Her expression darkened, wracked with guilt, but Yu Minge merely smiled.
"Then take it as a lesson from one of the few who would know."
"... will do."
"Very well. My humble abode is temporarily yours. I look forward to you shocking the entire world."
"As do I, Master." Yu Minge walked off with a smile; she always turned rather docile whenever she brought up his father, either by accident or to try and anger him.
There were only four people in the entire Ashlands who knew the truth of his heritage—his Father, Xiaoling, Holy Ancestor, his Master who has been dead for over 100 years now, and the Gilded Emperor, the man who inherited his Father's former position as the Sect Leader of the only Tier X Sect of the Ashlands, Sword God Emporium.
Yu Minge would wince and feel the twinge of pain in his heart whenever he would try to recall his early childhood—it was as though there was a tangled web of roots wrapped around those memories, and any time he tried to access them, the roots would squeeze until his heart hurt too much to continue.
Where his Father was now, why he abdicated his role, why he sent Yu Minge far out and away while still allowing him to keep the knowledge of his heritage... a thousand questions swirled inside his mind, and though he had made his peace in the past with never finding answers to them, now that he saw the future in which he rose to the position of an Immortal... he began to yearn once more, yearn for that which was taken from him, and yearn for the reasons behind the theft.