AIR 157-162

Chapter 157

I had to stop picking up strays. The Maidens, Nai, Cai Xuin, and now some poor old demigod. 

I sighed and stood still in the night sky, looking down at the growing village beneath me. 

“Am I getting too egotistical Wriendler?” 

The sword hummed in reply. 

Sad as it was to say, this blade right here was probably my oldest companion. I had kept it, raised it, fed it, and bonded with it since I was a child. 

Well, a child by my current definition. I was a grown man in my own eyes back then. 

I walked over to the array, which was still stuck in one spot near the village. I touched it and it squirmed. 

“Do something,” I mumbled. 

It just sat there. 

It’ll be active sometime next year.

Ah yes, my ever present companion. The Tome. 

“Alright, I need to understand something.”

You need to understand a lot of things.

Oh great, it was getting snarky now. 

“You know what I’m talking about.”

I do.

“What exactly can you do for me and what can I ask of you?”

You’re aware of the nature of knowledge. You have seen enough God-Imperiums to know the consequences of touching something beyond your rank.

“A little. The higher the rank of something, the more I’ll be shaped by it because I’m a lesser existence. But I’ve interacted with some things way beyond my rank and yet nothing changed.”

Yes. Some things shape and some things don’t. The water given to you by Forn, for example, does not shape you. But that river would have.

“The water was only at the fourteenth rank.”

That is not the sole reason it did not shape you. The life of things matter as well. The river was more of a conscious concept rather than a living thing. The more alive and similar something is to you, the more you can be shaped by it. This all happens not due to the nature of the thing itself but due to the nature of your being. It is you who reshapes yourself into their image. 

“So the water didn’t change me because we were different beings?”

Correct.

“Why?”

It is similar to daos in that sense. Every person has their own path, but further from that, every form of existence has their own path as well. The larger the difference between existences the lesser the reflection will be. 

“And this is why I can’t ask you for a cultivation technique?”

To be truly safe after the war starts you would need to be a God-Imperium, and no God-Imperium is given that status.

“Thank you for your overwhelming care and kindness.”

The Tome said nothing. 

“So, what should I do? What can I ask of you?”

Anything of your own rank or lower, and absolute aid in navigating existence. 

I thought about that. It was useful. Extremely useful. The Tome had access to secrets beyond my understanding, even if they were of the equivalent rank as me. 

“Alright. I want access to all the information gathered by the Array Kings that came before me and all their recipes as well.”

Done.

“Thanks.”

One more thing came to mind. 

“Why do you want me to reach the God-Imperium rank anyways?”

Do you know the highest cost to war?

“Life?”

Yes. But more than even that, the highest cost to war is information. I remember things and concepts that have been entirely wiped out of history and I will never know certain things because they have been undone. People make things. More than laws, more than existence, it is people who make information. Stories, ideas, myths, and truths. Pure knowledge with no weight or substance yet still staggering full of meaning. Do you know what God-Imperiums are? They’re knowledge. Truths that have made themselves so strong that even existence reflects them. When they die, while something persists, those truths vanish. There could have been another Primordial for all we know, turned to nothingness from fruitless conflict. War is annihilation, absolute erasure. It makes the things I know turn into lies and rewrites everything beneath the Imperium in its wake. 

“That was heavy.”

I am Tome.

“Ha.”

I grabbed the book, opened to a page, and started to read. There was a lot of stuff in there, knowledge passed down from generations of Array Kings.

Mentions of experiments, ideas, and tournaments. Oh the tournaments. That was how the Array King was determined. I wondered when they would have the next one. It was held in one of the Golden Realms, with a few God-Kings overlooking it. 

The Array Master’s Guild. 

That brought back memories. 

And so I read late into the night until the sun came up. 

“Well,” I breathed, still digesting the bunk of all the new knowledge suddenly thrown into my mind. I had finished it. 

I had increased my perception to the maximum and devoured all the information I could over the night and I had gained the knowledge of the billions that had come before me, array masters older than the concept of Array Kings. All my predecessors had a lot of useful information, but I was the best. 

Or rather Dane had been the best human. But that didn’t mean that he knew everything, he had depth in many aspects of array casting but there was a nearly infinite lifetime of wisdom to be gathered here and it outwayed anything Dane had ever done. 

And even though I was the best, it would be a lie to say I was the strongest. My current path was nothing new, many array masters hit their plateau and picked up a dao eventually. 

And some had even become Imperiums. 

I also read about their persistence techniques. That was the method through which they cultivated themselves without a dao. If the array casters were human then this was a necessity. But some Array Kings weren’t human. Some were insects or beasts, or occasionally, even trees. 

And they used arrays almost like a natural law. 

That was entirely unheard of for me. I bubbled and giggled with near impossible joy at the book. 

One tree had made its root systems into arrays, incorporating the fundamental concepts into its very biology and it had reached the rank of God-King. One hive queen had turned each one of her hive’s insects into individual units and operated her hive like an array. 

I had never heard of this. 

It was almost worth the war. 

Well, no, it wasn’t. But it felt like it was. I hadn’t been this happy in… I frowned. 

I had never been this happy. Dane hadn’t, and Bill’s happiness, as large as it was, was mortal. Bill’s memories shone on top of Dane’s like fireflies on top of the forest night. But this happiness, this memory felt like the burning sun.

It is enjoyable, yes?

I nodded. 

“I… I never knew it was that old. This dates back to the Realm of Imperium? Back when the Heavens and the Hells shared a single realm.”

Even further before that.

I nodded. 

“Yes. Some of it lacked that context but I didn’t think that…”

It is a beautiful thing.

And I knew exactly what it was talking about. 

“Makes me feel like I just started learning about arrays.”

I am envious. 

I laughed. 

“Well, I’ve got a sect to run for now, but thank you for this.”

The Tome shut itself and dropped onto my table. 

And I walked over to Chin’s house with the biggest smile I had ever worn. 

Chapter 158

Mei Shan and Fey Lin Fo sat opposite each other. 

They were in Chin’s living room and having a hefty conversation about Ah-Marin’s world politics. 

“This continent is called Fol-Amon and it is ruled by the Void Blade, The Eternal Darkness, and the Ever Living Fey. Their territory is split between the east and west. The Void Blade on the east side and the Ever Living Fey on the west.”

“They are a sect exclusive to the Fey?” Mei Shan asked. 

“Yes, elves, dwarves, fairies, and such. The Eternal Darkness Sect has a city in the middle of the two territories. It is the most naturally dense place within the continent.”

“What are their inner empires like? Are the Ever Living Fey racially split?”

“All the empires are. The Ever Living Fey favor the Fey over any other humanoid, but even within that classification, its mostly elves and dwarves ruling in the higher courts. And while there are a number of Fey within the Void Blade’s territory, most of them can’t find the right technique to cultivate.”

Mei Shan nodded. 

Fey was a term used for the celestial being within the Cosmic Forest. But just like how the primordial man had mortal human counterparts, so did the celestial fey have their mortal counterparts. They were much stronger than humans as mortals, but their nature was more restricted. Reproduction was a much more difficult thing, and ofcourse, they were bound by certain rules. 

“Are you part fey?”

“I’m a quarter elf on my mother’s side. Its the reason I look the way I do and the reason for my name.”

I sat in a corner and listened passively. I was still thinking about arrays, about all that I had learned from the Tome. 

I was also waiting. 

“Do they do anything?” I asked. “Or do they just fey around and stay in their lush green forests all day?”

“They keep out of most things,” Fey Lin replied, not missing a beat. 

“Classic fey. But they didn’t act when they heard about what you went through? Normally they’re a little more protective of their own.”

“No. My mother disavowed her heritage in order to join the Eternal Darkness Sect, and since that granted her freedom from their rules. But that meant that they excommunicated our entire bloodline. Have you dealt with the fey before?”

“Yes,” I grumbled. 

I could sense her aura flux. She was curious but she kept her face still and didn’t ask me any questions. 

Then the door opened and the people I had been waiting for came in.

Chin, followed by Medin and Po, along with a shuffling Cai Xuin entered the room. 

“Ope, there’s my class, right this way,” I waved. 

Cai bowed slightly. Po Pen gave me a casual wave. Chin didn’t frown, and Medin smiled. 

All here, all in an okay mood. 

“Alright. Today is the first day of cultivation class.”

The door opened again and a dog peaked its head around the corner, panting and carrying a baby with wide and observing eyes. 

Chin went and gathered some chairs for everybody. There were always people here so there were always excess chairs. 

After everyone was seated and Medin had forced a few dumplings and a cup of tea into our hands, we finally started. 

“Alright. Everyone here is at the first rank or higher. The goal is that by the end of the month, we will all have reached the second rank, is that clear?”

Everyone nodded understandably, except for all the true cultivators within the room. Even Fey Lin looked a bit skeptical. Mei Shan said nothing and looked down at a piece of paper in her hand. 

“And Cai, we’re aiming for the third rank with you, alright?”

Cai looked alarmed, as if a heavy burden had suddenly been tossed onto him. 

“Relax, its not a deadline, just a goal.”

He gave a pensive nod. 

I pulled out a scroll and passed them over to the four cultivators.

“This is a personal cultivation technique I’ve handcrafted for everyone of you. You just have to follow it through and you’ll hit the second rank in no time, understand?”

They all nodded. 

“But there are of course, bottlenecks and struggles. So today, I’ll explain exactly what the second rank is and how to go about getting it. Questions? Raise your hand if you have any.”

Cai raised his hand slowly.

“Yes?”

“How can we reach the next rank so quickly?”

“Ah, good question. Yes. As most of you know, reaching the next rank is a celebrated achievement and takes a great deal of effort and difficulty, even if you are just going from the first rank to the second. But there are exceptions to the rule. Generally, the difficulty in rank change is measured by three things. There are more things, ofcourse, but these three things must improve consistently throughout the whole cultivation journey. Does anyone know what these three things are?”

No one raised their hands. 

“Quality, quantity, and nature. Those are the three things that must improve with each growth in rank.”

Cai seemed to be paying so much attention that I thought he might run out. Medin smiled calmly and sipped her tea. Po was quiet but alert and Chin was just sitting there. 

“Quality is a hard thing to explain, but it’s like the very density of your qi. It’s the first thing to improve when you have a breakthrough. But wielding higher rank qi does not mean you have attained that higher rank. Quantity by itself is one thing. You also need enough of the higher rank qi to fuel your breakthrough. And of course the last but arguably most important thing is nature. That is something you’ll have to worry about in the future, but its essentially the definition of your being. Your dao. Your laws. It is what you think of as yourself.

“Now there are other things necessary for a growth in rank, but these three will always have to change in some regard. They never stay still from one rank to the other. And that’s mainly because they’re the very foundation for existential weight, but you won’t be touching on that till you're at higher ranks.

“But now to answer Cai’s question, the first five ranks are what’s commonly known as the mortal stages. They are the easiest to cultivate and if you know what you’re doing, you can run through them fairly quickly.”

I pulled up a stone and changed it. 

“Does anybody know what this is?”

“A-- a spirit stone,” Cai whispered. 

“Correct, what rank?”

“I-- Of the Immortal stage.”

“Correct. Now what would happen if I broke the qi within this stone down to the fifth stage?”

“We would die,” Cai stated, eyes still wider than dinner plates. 

“Well, yes. But what else? Chin? Did I see you raise your hand just now?”

“No,” Chin answered. 

“Cai?”

The kid gave me a blank stare. 

“It would break down into an infinite amount of lesser qi,” Fey Lin said. 

“Ding ding ding!”

I threw her one of Medin’s dumplings. 

“Correct! One unit of immortal qi is made from an infinite amount of fifth rank qi!”

“How?” Chin finally asked. 

“Well, this is only true for the immortal realm and beyond, but you should think of it less in amounts and more in quality. How many squares can you fit into a cube? How many lines can you fit into a square? And how many dots can you fit into a line? One thing is qualitatively different from the other, and its the same for the mortal ranks though less so. If you broke down fifth rank qi into fourth rank qi, you’d get a lot of it, but not an infinite amount.”

Chin still looked confused. 

“You can take earth, sun, water, and seeds, but you can’t feed anyone from those alone. You plant the seeds and give it sometime and you get plants, something qualitatively different from their sums. Something infinitely more than their original parts.”

At this, he nodded. 

Chapter 159

“Now, to finally answer Cai’s question,” I said, pulling out small bracelets and tossing them to the four listeners. 

“You will each wear this bracelet which will collect all of the excess qi you produce and feed it back to you later this month in order to increase your rank.”

“But--”

“Yes, your dantiants can’t produce enough qi to fill up the bracelet by the end of the month, that’s why I will also be giving each of you these!”

My hands flashed and a few pill bottles came to be in front of them. 

“These are qi production pills. They will constantly be consumed, refined, and digested by your dantiants over the next month and the bracelets will absorb all the qi you produce.”

“Why does it have to be our qi?” Chin asked. “Could we use some other qi to get to the next stage?”

“Nope. If its not your own qi then you can’t use it. The natural part of you wouldn’t be able to use it. Its like planting seeds you’ve never heard of and relying on them to feed your whole village.”

Chin frowned deeply at this analogy. 

“Alright, take one pill per week at the start of this class. We will meet next week to discuss our progress and questions, understand?”

They all nodded. 

“Oh and for this week's homework, I want you to think about what the dao means to you. What does it mean to be alive? What are the best parts of your life? What’s your purpose? And why do you find meaning in it? I want you to think about the reason you wake up in the morning. And while you live your lives, I want you to feel the flow of the world around you. Class dismissed.”

Po Pen got up and bowed to me, handing me a small note before he left. Cai Xuin did the same. Medin gave me some more dumplings and Chin was already out in the fields in that instant. 

I ate the dumplings and stared out into the sky. The clouds were thinning and the rainy season was just about to end. There were about two more weeks left and Chin was panicking. 

The village had grown as had cultivator town and he was worried about having enough crops to sustain the ever growing vally. That meet up of his was tomorrow. The one with all the cultivators of the region gathering around for Chore Day. 

That would be fun to watch. 

I felt a tug at my robe and turned to see Nai riding on top of her dog. 

She pulled, hoisting herself off the dog and onto me, climbing onto my robe and up my back. 

“Argh!”

“Really?”

“Aue bah bahl!”

“Oh wow.”

I shifted her over to my hands and kept walking. She was talking but not about anything specifically. It was a ramble of meaningless gibberish. She was just practicing talking and wanted me to help her. 

“Ough bo cheeeeeee!”

“Oh those were good. Are those new sounds you just made?”

“Aur!” 

That was a yes.

“Good job!” 

She cooed and smacked her hand against my chest. 

In response, I brought out the monster. 

The tickle monster. 

She screamed and turned and tried to run, but I was using the very concept of tickle itself to do this. And she laughed. She laughed and laughed and almost cried, then she pooped. 

I stopped. 

“Whoops!” 

Nai gave me an angry glare while I changed her.

“Bow!”

I’ve gone two weeks without pooping myself! You made me break my streak!

“I apologize.”

She crossed her arms and frowned as I cleaned her up. I teleported the poop away. Three dumplings later, she had all but forgotten about the poop streak. 

I walked around for a bit with Nia holding onto my shoulders. We said hello to the farmers, with most of them saying hello back. They were less afraid of me then they ever had been. Chin gave Nai a fresh fruit and a pat on the back. Medin gave her some more food. 

Mei Shan and Fey Lin Fo nodded at Nai. 

Fey Lin Fo stared at Nai for a good minute before pointing and asking.

“How did that baby reach the fifth rank?”

“She’s a talented fellow.”

“Talented?” Fey Lin asked. “What kind of talent does she have?”

“The best kind.”

“Auorgh!” Nai yelled. 

“How did I not sense her before?”

“She can hide if she wants to, right Nai?”

“OOOOO!” 

That was a yes. 

Fey Lin Fo looked terrified. 

“Is she your child?”

At this, everyone turned and looked at me. Mei Shan, Fey Lin Fo, and even Nai. 

“She’s not my direct kin,” I answered. “But yes, I guess she is my child.”

Nai was on my right shoulder, holding tightly onto my robe. I could feel her hold on a little tighter. 

“In all the ways that matter,” I added. “She’s my child.”

Nai smacked my head and burped. Tob, who had been following us this whole time, barked. 

“Tomorrow’s Chore Day, right? Are any of your sisters going to help?” 

“We all are,” Mei Shan answered. “Chin is worried about the growing population and the lack of potential food is distressing him.”

“Unplanted seeds distress him.”

“Yes,” Mei smiled. “But both me and Lin here are planning to help him out. She’ll limit herself to the fifth rank and work along with us.”

The farmlands were a good concern. 

“I think I’ll help as well,” I replied. 

I teleported us away from the room and had us floating, just beyond the valley. 

This place was intricate to me. It wasn’t the land that mattered but the arrays I had built into it. I had worked on it for untold eons, and now I knew more. 

I’d have to spruce up my designs. 

But that would be for later. 

For now, I took out a drop of water. It was diluted and had been reduced to the peak of the sixth rank. 

But still, it was just a drop of water. I had cured the thirst underneath the desert once. I had found the shadow of the man devoured by his own dao, a mass of nothing but desire, and I had destroyed it. 

But the land was still dry and the desert was still empty. 

“Shouldn’t you discuss this with Chin and the village council first?” Mei Shan asked. 

“Nah,” I shrugged. 

Then the drop fell into the valley, then beneath it. It dropped down beneath the soil and into the dry desert earth the valley stood upon. 

Then the desert drank. 

Tens of thousands of people were still crossing the Great Desert Strip at this very moment. Beasts of all kinds were stumbling their way through the land, being pushed forward but cultivators trying to peddle their goods across the region. 

A whole lot of people were traveling to the village as well, but all had one thing in common. All of them bore the heat of the land and all of them struggled. 

But then the earth beneath them changed. It didn’t grow grass or blossom flowers. Trees didn’t suddenly erupt from the sand dunes and greenery didn’t suddenly take over. 

But the earth tightened. The sand turned to ground and the dry air had moisture in it. All the cultivators could sense a pulse of qi flowing through the ground. 

It spoke of one thing and one thing only, water. 

The desert crabs were the first to truly feel it. The ground didn’t attack them anymore. The thirst they had learned to accept as natural, suddenly went away.

Then the people felt it. The ground mushed and mudded over for about an hour before it dried and turned into earth. 

Over the course of the next day, the desert would be an immense field of grass. Within a week, the first new villages would have started migrating over. 

And tomorrow, a happy farmer would make many a sect elder toil away on the fields. 

Chapter 160 Chore Day

There was some upset from the village, some annoyance, but mostly just shock. 

Chin was happy when I told him that he had fresh farmland. In a rare moment of joy, the man smiled at me and said thank you. Then he proceeded to berate me and question why I hadn’t done this earlier. 

Then came Chore Day. Chin knew what was going on to some degree, but he knew it like he knew it. It wasn’t some grand meeting of the Sects and their disciples, but rather him taking advantage of some self important bastards and putting them to good use for once. 

The skies were littered with little men and women riding in on swords and beasts. The people of the Hidden Viper came on giant verdant wyverns, each of their beasts flapping gently with Grace. 

I stayed out of it. 

This was Chin’s doing and he would bear the consequences.

Some of them were familiar faces. I recognized a few of them from the first delegation of people who had come here to meet with me. I saw them scanning and looking around the place. 

I wasn’t hiding anymore. My sixth rank aura shined through the valley. But more importantly, neither was Rin Wi. She was also there, strong and noticeable and caused a slight uproar among the cultivators. 

As did Gauntlet. He was dressed as a giant ten foot tall immortal rank cultivator. 

I could have revealed myself to the whole planet and its sect system if I wanted to, but that would be too much attention, and I wasn’t looking for that at the moment. 

The Raging River came in wearing flowing blue robes and nice clothes. 

“Cai Xuin!” I called out to the boy meditating in a field. 

He jumped. 

“Your father is here,” I notified him. 

He looked shocked. 

“Your mother is here as well. Should I toss them out?”

“My mother?”

“You don’t like them, right? They might try to find you and talk or whatever, but I can just toss them out of here if you want.”

“I-- no. It’s fine. But I would rather not meet them, if at all possible.”

R“Done,” I said. “Anything else?”

Cai shook his head, his face still but his aura pensive. 

“Are you sure?” I asked again. “I can just toss them out if you want?”

Again, he shook his head. I nodded, then called over Mei Shan and Fey Lin. 

“Mei, his parents might try to talk to him. Tell them they are not to do so. Get Gauntlet on them if they persist, okay?”

“Yes sir,” Mei Shan bowed. 

Sir? That was new. 

It was better than mister or honored master. 

********

Tai Lui fought with all his might during the hardest day of his life. 

Three men, each immortal, each disgustingly strong played with him like he was nothing more than a pile of dead bones. One struck his ribs. The other, his legs, and the other his back. 

He screamed and the world went red. 

No, that was his blood entering his eyes. Screaming did nothing. It changed nothing. It didn’t ease the pain or clear the red, but he had to do it. 

He couldn’t stay silent. 

“Brother, I believe he is truly telling the truth,” One of the immortals said. 

He was tall and gaudy. His robes were bright and expensive, but had no style. He wore expensive hydes and jewelry that had been embedded into a spirit stone. And his eyes had the cold centered look, the type that would snap at someone for breathing wrong. He was the type of man you’d be afraid of from a distance. 

“We do not know,” the other one replied. 

He was similar to the first man but lacked height and had genuine style. His clothes spoke of wisdom and power and the black but long beard on his face spoke of aged wisdom. 

“Please, I speak the truth. I-- I swear it.”

“Brother?” The bearded man spoke, turning to the last man in the group. 

This one wore nothing but simple fighting robes and a sword. He was a warrior first. His blade was clean and sheathed and carried simply on his waist but his knuckles burned red with blood. He was the one who had battered Tai Lui the most and he was the monster that had cost him all of this pain. 

He looked at his knuckles, and then he looked at Tai Lui.

“You speak the truth?” He asked. 

“Yes,” Tai Lui breathed. Bubbles of blood mixed with his words but he held still. 

The third brother nodded. 

“Then welcome, brother. You may join us. What is our is your and what is your is ours. Together we grow. Together we will take, and the world will know to feed us when we hunger and to give before we even ask. Welcome, fourth brother of the Outlands Thieves. You are weak. We shall fix that before going to claim your treasure in the valley, little brother.”

“Th--thank you,” Tai Lui sputtered. 

He had come to these men. They had not come to him and he had begged to join their ranks. This was the test, to see if the man was willing and able to bear the pain of battle. And Tai Lui had proven himself. 

They tossed him a small pill and his mouth opened to swallow it. He bit down on the pill, mixing it with his still leaky blood. 

Crunch. 

Liquid blood and qi flavoured his mouth. The bones within his body shifted and he felt his body move. 

It hurt. It felt like some higher being had entered his body and was rearranging the organs within it but he bit his lip and hung on tight. 

He breathed through the pain, biting his inner cheek off in the process and feeling it heal right away. He didn’t scream, not in front of these men. Not if he could help it. 

“Bear through it brother, the suffering will end soon,” the warrior man said with real empathy, as if he was not the one who had cut him into bits just mere seconds ago. 

“Only those with strong will are worthy of taking over the world,” said the bearded one. “And you are such a person.”

“Be proud,” said the gaudy one. “We will make you stronger and you will do the same. We will take from all what we desire.”

Loyalty, brotherhood, power, and respect. 

Now this was an immortal. 

He was healing and broken for the third time within the year. The first time had been with that broken immortal. That bastard ,he would have his revenge. The second time was after his tribulation and the third time was now. 

He still remembered the man. How smug he had been. How easy the fight had been for him. He still remembered his broken pride. 

He still remembered the pain. The suffering. He still remembered the pitied look in that man’s eyes. 

Of all his pain, that had been the worst. 

He had learned his lesson. He had taken his pride and smothered it. He had changed it into something else. His pride had become his strength and his tool and he even managed to put it to the side to gain these new allies. 

He controlled himself now.

The only thing left to do was to take vengeance. 

Chapter 161

Chore day was a success. 

About a hundred different cultivators above the fifth rank came to help out. Sect elders of all shapes and sizes littered the landscape. 

A lot of old men stroked their beards and a lot of powerful women had to do a double take when a mortal would walk up to them with a farming implement. 

They all thought it was a test at first. They took the farm tools for a second and just stood there, wondering when the great cultivator would reveal himself to them. I wasn’t planning on participating, but when I saw some of them fuming at the tools and staring around for anyone to take their anger out on, I decided to act. 

I walked out there and started plowing and cutting up the earth into tilled soil and I went fast. 

Gai Jin followed in my footsteps, as did Rin Wi. We were limiting ourselves to the fifth rank, but when the elders and sect leaders saw us move, they followed. There was something about authority that went past mere fear. 

Power was important and the people who held were seen as the best. They were leaders, guides, and people who defined success. And if the powerful did something, then the less powerful should surely follow, because why would an immortal farm some land for no reason? 

Well, they wouldn’t, at least that’s what the sect elders believed. 

Suddenly, earth was flying everywhere and the ground was being dug up at an increasing rate. The farm tools were being reinforced with qi and dug through the fresh soil for miles on end. 

I circled the valley, Gai Jin circled me and Rin Wi circled him. In an instant the farm land had tripled, but that was just us. Three individuals running around with no purpose. 

Sect elders studied us, all of them confused but all still determined. 

I could read their auras, but I didn’t have to. They thought I was eccentric. They believed me to be some strange cultivator man who would reward people for merits only I could see. 

They were wrong. This was Chin’s idea. They did this at the behest of an old man who had just reached the first stage less than a month ago. 

But they would never see that. 

And like a newborn tornado, the ground erupted, the earth was split and a growing group of fifth ranks did something no one had ever seen them do before. 

They farmed. 

They cut through the land that had been a desert just a day ago, slowly at first. They were observing me, trying to find out the purpose of all of this. 

Old men stroked their bears. Old women tugged their braids. I got about ten glances per second and I ignored them all. 

This was their doing, not mine. 

That was when one of them overtook my group. It was a man from the Hollow Echo sect. He grinned and bowed while he passed me. 

There was shock and insult. A silent hush and wonder about what I would do to the bastard who dared to overtake me. 

The people of the Hollow Echo almost fainted. But I just smiled and bowed back. 

And that was when the competition started. 

“This Raging River will not lose to you blind dogs!”

“My Hollow Echo moves the earth, your river cuts it.”

“Flowering Sword Style, Ten Thousand Cuts!”

“Let my fists break the earth!”

“We are of the jungle. Surely the Hidden Viper will be victorious.”

That was when things heated up. What these elders wanted as much as my favor or goodwill was face. And here was a competition between the Five Sects, one with no violent consequence. Those who won today would do so without any repercussions. 

The no violence rule was still active so there would be no retaliation. But moreso, the loser would be the worst of the five sects. They would lose the most face. 

“May I have an immortal rank spirit stone, Honored Master?”

I raised an eyebrow and threw and tossed her a stone. 

“The one who tills the most amount of land wins an Immortal Rank spirit stone!” Rin Wi projected. Everyone heard her.

And for an instant, there was a small pause as the cultivators thought about the implication. 

I looked at Rin and the girl just gave me a toothy grin. 

Then they exploded. All reason was lost, there was only competition. 

Tools were thrown aside and treasured blades replaced them. 

A tidal wave of earth erupted and pushed. 

“Do not hurt a single person or animal!” I yelled out. 

The Great Desert Strip, though it was no longer a desert, still had people migrating through it. Clans and merchants traversed the land, going from one side to the other and now that the desert was no longer a desert, even more people could be found within the fertile lands. 

Within the hour, the whole of the Strip was tilled. 

Chin stood there, smiling brightly at the seemingly infinite farmland while the cultivators all huddled around Rin Wi as she tallied up the numbers.

“I can’t seed this whole field,” Chin muttered. 

“No but you can still plant a lot,” I answered. 

He nodded. 

I could feel his qi moving. He didn’t have enough qi to push himself into the second rank, but his dao was practically dragging the rest of him forward. 

I tossed him a pill. It was a third rank qi recovery pill. Normally, it would kill any man beneath the third rank and decimate their meridians, but Chin was in the best position to utalize it. He ate it and chewed, and as his dao and law grew, as he threw seeds into the fertile soil, he broke through. 

Though he didn’t seem to notice it yet. 

All the villagers helped out planting as many seeds as they could into the fresh earth. Rin Wi awarded the stone to the winner, The Hidden Viper Sect and returned to the fields with her sisters, also planting what seeds they could. 

The rest of the land bloomed and turned. Seeds blew into the Strip, moving into the land and for the first time in millenia, blooming. 

We would have knee high grass here within a week. 

Qi beasts felt the empty and fertile lands and started their own trek forward. Word traveled through light towers and within hours, the people of the region had some inkling of news, some idea of change. 

They didn’t know what happened, but the Great Desert Strip was no more. 

“I guess the Oasis Sect is a bit of a strange name now, seeing as we no longer have an oasis,” I mentioned. 

“It’s still an oasis,” Mei Shan replied. “Its just one that has beat the desert.”

Fey Lin was by her side, staring passively at the fresh new earth. 

Nai was playing in the dirt. Chin was still seeding and Rin Wi was now feeding all the cultivators and her immortal chef skills made most of them forget about their loss. 

And of course, the desert crabs were dancing beneath the earth. Those small little crabs that died for their children, they were the happiest of them all.

Chapter 162 The Keepers of Imeprium

Wukong was a God-imperium. He was a being of the highest power. He was beyond all things and something entirely his own and few could call themselves his equal. 

But he was angry now. 

Wukong sat at the Gates of Imperium. In Front of him were the Keepers of Imperium, The Guardians of Eternity, The Ones Who Watched, The Keepers of the Pact.

There was no true government amongst reality but these people, this was as close as it got. They were from the Heavens, they were from the Hells, they were from every corner of existence. 

They were keepers, and they were the most important keepers of them all. 

They stood in the Palace of Gods. A realm much like Wukong’s, but different. It had been built with the help of many Imperiums, even Wukong. It was built to withstand their battles, to stay steady no matter what and yet, it was not a place of war. 

No. It was a safehouse for the most important thing in all of existence. It guarded the pact. 

“I warn you,” said Wukong. “And yet you do not listen.”

“We listen,” said the Guardian. 

He was tall and ancient, a dao angel. He was-- well he wasn’t a he, more of an it. But the dao angel did not care. 

It was a suit of armour, shiney and gold, silver and dull. It was bright and small, large and dark. It was all things, much like what it guarded. 

“We have been warned before, and we still stand now.”

The ego, thought Wukong. 

The Tome had told him it would be this way. The Guardians, for all their power, took guarding to be a passive thing. The pact didn’t ban Imperiums from plotting, or even inciting wars to a certain degree.

The Monkey King sighed. 

“Let me meet with him.”

“No.”

Wukong growled. But the Guardian stood still. One God-Imperium was nothing to him. 

No, that was the wrong way to phrase it. 

The Guardian was not one person, and it wasn’t that Wukong couldn’t fight it. It was that he wouldn’t. 

He had become an Imperium before the Second Pact, but even he would never fight the Guardian. It would break the very foundations of reality.

Well, he would get put down by the Heavens and the Hells, but he could flee. 

He smiled at the thought of that. 

“At least prepare yourself for the consequences.”

“We are always prepared.”

“Prove it to me.”

“You are not a guardian.”

“Of course I am, we all are.”

The Guardian, the thing covered in metal, the Dao angel born of only Imperiums’ will, glared. 

Wukong smiled and for a moment, that shiney helm reflected his smile absolutely. 

“No,” the Guardian refused. 

The gated behind him shimmered and and opened to reveal--

Sun Wukong. 

“See?” Wukong stated. “I am a guardian.”

He smiled at himself and for a moment, both became one.

How do you limit an Imperium? How do you control an omnipotent being? 

The answer was simple. You can’t. 

Omnipotence couldn’t be limited. It wasn’t in its nature. To be all powerful was to be all powerful. 

To limit or control that would be to undo that. 

Wukong had arisen to the ranks of God-Imperium far before the Guardian had come to be. He was one of the old gods.

But even the old gods had seen the use of the Guardian. They had all banded together at some point, putting a piece of themselves into it. 

And those that hadn’t, well they were elsewhere, excluded from this reality entirely. 

They all eventually returned and did as Wukong had, putting a piece of themselves into the Pact. As for the new gods, they had no choice. 

The Keepers of Imperium were called that for a reason, they were the final tribulation. Give a piece of yourself to the Guardian, guarantee peace, or be brought down before you can fly beyond the Dragon’s Gates. 

All God-Kings who would make it to Imperium would have to face the Guardian at one point or another. There was no other possibilities. The old gods had made it, and all who refused eventually relented. And now someone was trying to break it. 

“We will not act,” Wukong told himself. 

To think of the part of him over there as something separate or unique would be wrong. It was him and he was it. 

He had put it there willingly so he could take it back if he needed to. But there was no reason for that. 

The new gods had to give up a piece of themselves before transcending to Imperium. They would take a piece of themselves and make it want existence to continue. A piece of them would always want the rest of existence to persist outside of them. They didn’t have a choice. When they reached the rank of Imperium, that piece would transcend with them. 

And thus, all Imperiums agreed on one thing and that was that the rest of existence should persist. 

Some rebelled, some fought back. None lived to tell the tale because not only would the Guardian attack them, all Imperiums would as well. 

And with enough will, with enough effort, even a God-Imperium of the ninth step could be suppressed and pushed out of the rest of reality. 

And if a God-Imperium was within the pact, then they could be killed, but only as long as the being killing them was also within the pact. But that was another matter. 

In a way, every God-Imperium that had ever been killed had died through suicide. The piece of them within the pact, the poison from their very soul.

It was iron, Wukong knew. Some of the old gods left the pact sometimes, but they would come back eventually. It was in a way the only hope. 

The only hope of eternal peace, but also the only hope of eternal death. It was the only way a group of omnipotent beings could be trusted to not destroy all of existence on a whim, and it was the only way they could ever kill each other. 

The Guardian of Imperium. What a fitting name. 

But they were right, and Wukong hadn’t expected any other result. He wasn’t an idiot. 

But he had to try and he wanted to see what the Guardian would say, what that piece of him would do. 

It was a part of him, and yet separate. 

If he were a mortal, it would be the part of him that admired the beautiful sunset. It would be the man admiring the trees. It would be that feeling of floating joy and wonder a man might have if he were staring down at a city full of people beneath. 

“Be weary,” he whispered. 

And the piece became the whole, and the Guardian nodded. 

Echoes intruded in the halls as other Imperiums walked about. Some of them were visitors, like Wukong, but a lot were members of the Keepers. God-Imperiums who followed in the footsteps of the Guardian. 

Men, women, beasts, insects, plants, and even Eldritch beings. 

They were all here, and regardless of nature, they were united. 

“I always am,” said the Guardian. “Many have tried and plotted, many have failed. To plot, to hate, to seek my death is not against the pact. The sword may be drawn but until it is swinging for my head, I will not act.”

“I know,” Wukong breathed. “Just keep your hand on your own blade.”

The shiny metal reflected Wukong once more and his reflection smiled. 

“I always keep a hand on my blade.”

The God-Imperium nodded to himself, to the thing that kept existence alive. 

To the highest keeper and the strange union of love and hate that kept existence all in one piece. 

Wukong just hoped that it would persist, after all was said and done.