NOVPUBYuan Yaozu filled his core again and again, but it never felt full enough. Just like always. But with the juniors’ words ringing in his ears, he stopped and tried anew. Persistence was the key. He would not give up.
After a while, though, he felt like he was pointlessly banging his head against a wall, not doing anything different than he’d done hundreds of times before. There had to be an advantage the Trial Pagoda gave him that his cultivation cave didn’t.
“Being?” he said.
The entity appeared once more. “Face your fear and advance.”
Yes. Yuan Yaozu knew that. The entity had conveyed that message already more than once.
“Being, what happens to me if I explode my core and can’t advance?”
“If the trial taker fails, the trial taker will be reset and offered the chance to either leave the trial or try again.”
Yuan Yaozu grimaced. Exploding his core without enough qi to propel him to the next step felt stupid. A risk. But failure should result in being reset to his prior state. The juniors had said the same thing. Most of them had died many times during their trials.
Time to take a leap of faith.
He filled his core again, but instead of expelling it even though the quantity felt inadequate, he pressed on.
As a peak Golden Core, Yuan Yaozu was well acquainted with his exact qi aspect—venom that decays the flesh and spirit. His biggest choice had been to center his Concept around Venom or Decay. He’d chosen the latter, concentrating on his opponents’ bodies rotting and their very cultivation crumbling into chaos.
That focus had served him well. Bodies could be healed, but nothing scared an opponent more than having their cultivation disrupted. As his reputation had grown, his mere presence had served as a deterrent these last several centuries.
All that to say that he had no doubts about his Concept.
He filtered the qi held in his core through that Concept of Decay, bringing both the qi and Concept into harmony with his vision of the Dao.
That step he felt confident in. He was adamantly linked to his definition of his qi, and his knowledge of the Dao was as advanced as anyone’s. All was synchronized.
Yuan Yaozu took a deep breath. The next step was the problem. The juniors could have been lying to him about actually dying during their trials and being reset, or the Trial Pagoda might not have the necessary power to restore the cultivation of someone at the peak of Golden Core.
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Death was easy, something he could accept. It was, in fact, inevitable within a brief span of years if he didn’t advance soon. Compared to the prospect of living the rest of his days as a mortal, death was nothing.
His eyes went wide. For the first time, he realized that he was, in fact, afraid. Not of dying. Not of failure. Of being reduced to a mortal.
He chuckled. “Face my fears and advance indeed.”
Yuan Yaozu shattered his Golden Core.
What happened next was astounding. Literally astounding. Instead of dying or losing his cultivation, the qi, the ruined pieces of core, and his soul all swirled together, creating a new soul.
A Nascent Soul.
An Aura of Decay surrounded him.
He’d done it! After all that time, Yuan Yaozu had advanced to the Nascent Soul realm.
The holdup had been himself. His unrealized fear. He made a vow right then and there that no one, absolutely no one, would be told about what happened inside the Trial Pagoda.
Having finally advanced, though, there was no time to waste. He’d been inside for hours. The battle was probably long over, but if it wasn’t, he needed to get out there and see if he could help Chao Su—in the unlikely event that Chao Su was still living. Best case scenario, not all the Rising Tide Sect members had been killed yet.
Yuan Yaozu burst from the Trial Pagoda and ascended into the air with a mere effort of his will, no flying sword needed. And what he saw astounded him almost as much as his ascension had.
Yan Mingxia, an ancient and revered cultivator from the Jade Chameleon Sect was dead, her headless, torso-less, body was lying on the ground. Another legend from the Jade Chameleon Sect, Ye Zhengsheng, had the opposite problem. His head and upper part of his torso remained intact, and his legs were nearby. Of the middle part of his body, there was no sign.
He still lived but was not conscious.
Chao Su, on the other hand, looked to not be in nearly as rough shape, though he was still undoubtably injured. His right shoulder was missing, and he was lying on the ground with the lower part of his right arm several yards away. He appeared to be reaching for his hand.
Ah. His spatial ring.
Yuan Yaozu neared him, and Chao Su turned to him with a murderous glare.
“Easy, Sect Leader,” Yuan Yaozu said. “I’m here to help. I passed my trial and am yours to command for a century. Remember?”
Chao Su grimaced before nodding.
“Should I retrieve your ring for you?” Yuan Yaozu said.
“No. I’ve got it.”
There was a fluctuation in the local gravity, and the hand was pulled toward the sect leader. As soon as Chao Su touched the ring with his left hand, a pill appeared in his mouth.
“Ah. Better,” he said. “My healing technique isn’t nearly as fast as alchemy.”
Yuan Yaozu nodded agreeably, wanting desperately to avoid doing anything to get on that man’s bad side. “Ye Zhengsheng isn’t quite dead. Should I finish him for you?” 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝔬𝔪
“No!”
Yuan Yaozu was slightly taken aback by the vehemence, and he actually retreated several feet.
“Ah,” Chao Su said. “Apologies. I didn’t mean for that to come out quite so forcefully. That man gave me a lot of trouble, and I want the satisfaction of ending him myself.”
Yuan Yaozu cupped his hands. “Understandable, Sect Leader.”
“If you want to be helpful, though, there are still some hangers on, three Golden Cores, nearby. Get rid of them.”
“Of course, Sect Leader.” Yuan Yaozu sensed the interlopers as well, likely sent by the factions to report back on the outcome of the battle. As soon as he headed in their direction, they’d flee.
He wondered what story they’d take back to their masters and, more importantly, what impact those tales would have. Between his ascension and Chao Su’s victory, today’s events would reverberate throughout the land.
