Chapter 17: A Glimpse of the False god’s Tale

The sky filled with blood – red stars and the malicious vibe of the surrounding woods only held Wei’s attention for a fraction of a second, afterwards it was drawn like a moth to a flame westward. At the moment the entirety of Wei’s being was contained in his small sliver of mental qi. He moved quickly through the air pulled toward the source of his mental qi’s excitement. It was a vastly different feeling than flying in his mindscape had been. In this form he passed straight through trees, caves and even underground in mere moments.

Not only was he significantly faster but the environment had no effect on him. He passed through trees just as easily as the air. How is this different than my mindscape form and when will I have the chance to test my limits in depth Wei thought wistfully. From the moment he gained access to mental qi he had never had a chance to get even the least bit familiar with its capabilities. From what Zixin said it seems that going to this House of Survival early will put me at a significant advantage. There I will also practice my mental qi.

Wei’s journey ended just as abruptly as it started. He stopped in a wide clearing that reeked of blood. Still a bit disconcerted from passing through solid objects and moving at such dizzying speeds Wei was shocked to discover that his final destination was a small battlefield covered with a dozen corpses. Chunks of human flesh littered the earth surrounded by broken weapons, shattered armor, and small puddles of blood seemed to transform into thin mists that seeped into the night sky.

For a moment Wei questioned whether the bloody mist was somehow seeping into the stars. He had scantly arrived when an enormous shockwave detonated right in front of him. Flying rocks the size of carriages and howling winds destroyed the land around him and Wei raised his feeble arms in an instinctive attempt at defense.

Quickly remembering that he was at the moment a sliver of mental qi – and therefore incorporeal Wei lowered his arms and sought out the source of the devastation. In every corner of the clearing a fierce battle raged, so quick it seemed to be happening everywhere at once. Two red blurs were in constant clashes with a dark blur. The dark blur was clearly in control of the battle and whenever it clashed with a red blur the red blur would dim slightly and slow in its movement. After every couple of exchanges the two red blurs would somehow sync together and move perfectly as one to clash with the black blur which caused another deafening explosion followed by a shockwave.

This is an incredible fight between cultivators but I can’t see anything. Damn It!

He needed to see this fight! Only rarely had Wei desired something so wholeheartedly. They must be at a very high level of cultivation. One of them could even be the False God or related to him. How can I understand without seeing?

At the moment Wei was his mental qi and the mental qi was Wei. He could feel an intense desire to observe the black blur.

However the mental qi was much too slow. Wei was much too slow.

Compared to the speed of the three cultivators in front of him his earlier bout of speed was nothing. And although his mental qi was marginally faster than his eyesight it was barely fast enough to catch the shadows of the three cultivators.

How can I make it so that I can see them?

The next moment blood sprayed across the clearing and two corpses joined the dozens littering the clearing. Wei’s eye was drawn to one of them a huge bear of a man who had been beheaded. What kind of technique makes you that huge?

Seeing the two corpses garbed in red Wei looked frantically for the black blur, suspecting him to be the source of the pull on his mental qi. Could he be the False God?

The cultivator floated in the clearing drenched in blood, seemingly unbothered with the carnage surrounding him. He wore all black robes with the words invincible stitched across the front of them. On his face he wore a blank featureless white mask and in his hand he held a huge grey double headed axe drenched in blood. One moment he was still and the next he was flying towards the cultivator. In the span of a single breath he was close enough to see clearly the scratches on his mask and even though he knew this was a vision or illusion he still braced himself instinctively before he was pulled into the body in front of him.

He entered through the top of the cultivators head and felt his ‘body’ twist and turn around some type of barrier searching for a way in. It hurt worse than anything he had ever experienced in his life.

Worse than all the pain of his illness put together, and for a moment he felt himself face down in a crowded street about to die. The pain lasted for what could’ve been an instant or an eternity and then just like that, he was in.

But it was not without a price. More than half of him had scattered away leaving the strand of mental qi he was a part of so weak it felt like it would fall apart at any moment.

It was worth it.

Never before had he felt such power. For some reason he couldn’t feel the power of the bodies true or mental qi but he could sense it like a dam blocking a vast ocean of energy. Still he didn’t spare it even half a thought.

Because he had a perfect body, for the first time he had a body that wasn’t constantly wracked with pains and aches, it was strong and sturdy. In fact it was too strong. Wei had imagined super strength and this was not it. This was something far greater.

He felt like he inhabited the body of a dragon or some other powerful beast such was his strength. He reveled in the feeling of power and was grateful to Zixin for his favor.

How could I have ever imagined that such raw physical power was possible? I must thank Zixin for his favor. If I can achieve even a fraction then curing my illness will be entirely possible.

Wei finally felt like he had a strong grasp of what was truly powerful. Before he had no idea what true power was but now he at least had a point of reference.

Even if he is the False God this is power attainable in the Enlightened Realm. How powerful must those Celestials in the Celestial Realm be?

The movement of the body he inhabited drew his attention. With the cultivators movement Wei found himself ejected from the body. He immediately tried to reenter it but to his dismay found himself locked in place. Apparently occupying the powerful body had drained his mental qi without him noticing somehow and he was left with even less than before. The only positive was that his remaining sliver of mental qi was extremely pure and allowed him to see everything much clearer.

I still probably couldn’t follow the previous fight but maybe I could’ve seen a glimpse of something useful.

Observing the False God Wei watched as he floated higher into the sky “Come on out I know you’re there,” he said. No way! Surely he can’t sense me.

Wei being locked in place simply waited hoping that he was right. He really didn’t want to find out what the False God could do to a sliver of mental qi when angered. A second or two passed and the cultivator expecting a response and not getting one exploded into action. Even with how close Wei was watching with his enhanced sight he barely saw it.

One minute he was floating, relaxed and the next he threw his double headed axe like a javelin into the trees right in front of him. The shrill shriek of metal scraping metal rang out and the axe came flying back right at its owner. With a nonchalant swipe of his hand he grabbed it out of the air and laughed “If I didn’t say anything would you have just let me leave? How cruel of you to let me massacre your sects juniors. Don’t you feel the least bit guilty?”

As if in response to his words an extremely old man walked out of the forest into the clearing. He was short and fat with a pudgy face and drooping eyes. He was dressed in beast skin clothing and in his right hand he clutched a walking stick. His left hand was covered in bright, shiny silver and was slightly smoking where he had deflected the axe barehanded. “I would’ve interfered but they wouldn’t have forgiven me. They sacrificed their lives to expose your fighting style and identity. The ‘invincible one ‘, ‘the seeker of defeat’, why would someone like that possibly be coming here I wanted to know.” He said in a rasping voice.

“So did you at least find an answer after sacrificing some of the members of your sects junior generation?” The False God asked clearly amused.

“Yes. Who would’ve thought that my traitorous coward of a disciple Meng Rui could become so strong? So my craven disciple have you come to finally ask for forgiveness from me?” The old man asked in a mocking tone.

“Your words always did have some bite to them sadly impersonation is not your strong suite, ancestor.” The old man had almost no reaction that Wei could see but what he missed the False God didn’t. “I know it’s you. The aura of your true qi is something I will never forget. It took months of planning to get you here. First I’ll destroy your body and then I have a few very important questions for your soul.” The words were spoken with a sort of finality as if the conclusion was set in stone.

As the old man took his stance Wei didn’t even need to have strong intuition to know that he was about to see what Zixin had called the pinnacle of power in the Enlightened Realm.