Chapter 14

Back at the Soaring Flame Sect, sweat poured down Li Jie’s back in terror. This was because after spending a few minutes acclimating himself to the changes in his body from refining the pearl, he noticed that the world’s qi was no longer accumulating in his body. Even worse, it seemed that all of the pearl had been used to awaken something in his body and none of it went to his actual cultivation.

In other words, Li Jie could no longer cultivate to a higher level anymore. Uncertain as to what he should do, he took out a small jade talisman and sent some of his qi into it. Immediately it cracked in half and slowly began to turn into dust.

In a secret location in the sect, Zhu Que sat meditating inside a magical formation, pouring energy from himself into the formation. Surrounding him, numerous aged cultivators wearing core elder robes stood in a mysterious arrangement, their qi enveloping Zhu Que who redirected it into the formation.

With each passing minute, the magical formation became more luminous, until one of the elders collapsed from exhaustion. Taking this as a sign, everyone stopped the process and sat down to recover their strength.

“Hahaha, not bad. This time we managed to maintain the Burning Sky Invocation for over 10 minutes.” Zhu Que laughed, then looking at the elder who had collapsed, “Little brother Ao, you’ve been slacking off while I was gone, haven’t you? Hahaha.”

“A thousand apologies Patriarch,” the elder said while bowing, “It won’t happen next time!”

“Well whatever. With this session, the defensive formations around the sect should last another 25 years or so. Anyway, this old man is off to attend to some important business.”

Abruptly, Zhu Que disappeared, leaving the tired elders behind.

“He’s always off doing as he pleases, that Patriarch...” One of them sighed.

“I wonder what he’s so busy with these days? He seems a lot livelier than he was 14 years ago.”

“Probably uncovered some ancient stash of fine wine to make love to every night...”

-----

Zhu Que, now speeding towards Li Jie’s room at lightning speed, wondered why his disciple had contacted him.

‘I gave him that communication jade to use only in emergencies, what could have happened?’

He easily slipped through the window into the room and saw a meditating Li Jie. Noticing the anguish on his disciple’s face, he began to worry.

“Oi, Li Jie, what’s wrong?”

Li Jie stopped meditating and looked at his master, tears almost beginning to form in his eyes.

“Master! I can’t absorb it anymore...”

“What? What’s ‘it’? Explain clearly!”

“The qi of the world, I can’t absorb it at all!”

This news hit Zhu Que with the force of a 10-ton boulder. If his disciple couldn’t absorb qi anymore, that would essentially make him a cripple in the world of cultivation.

“What happened boy?! Tell me from the beginning!”

“Well it all began back when I discovered a dense pearl of qi inside my dantian a week ago...”

Zhu Que nodded, he remembered how Li Jie offhandedly mentioned that he fell unconscious and absorbed some mysterious qi during the incident.

“I discovered that if I refined the qi from it using normal methods, I could cultivate at a speed nearly a thousand times faster than normal! But recently, an elder tried to teach me alchemy and in the process, I discovered that I had a unique flame. The flame was extremely similar in nature to the pearl so I thought I would try materializing the flame within my dantian to refine the pearl...”

At this point, Li Jie stopped to let his master absorb everything he had just said. Astonishment clearly showed itself on Zhu Que’s face along with a bit of anger.

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier? Actually, nevermind. We’ll deal with that later, for now continue your story.”

“Sorry master. Anyway, once I used the flames on the pearl, it rapidly consumed the pearl. I felt some sort of indescribable feeling, but it was kind of like I gained a new sense that could see how the world worked. It was right after this that I found out I could no longer absorb qi.”

Zhu Que was absolutely stumped as he thought, ‘Gained a new sense on how the world worked? What the hell does that mean and how does it relate to being cut off from the world’s qi? In the first place, who the hell was this elder who taught my disciple something so irresponsible?’

Anger quickly boiled up in him as he proclaimed, “First things first, I’m going to find this stupid elder and beat the crap out of him! Where is he, Li Jie? What did he look like?”

Before Li Jie could answer, another presence unexpectedly appeared in the room, presumably using the window to get in as well. It was, of course, the old scarred elder that Zhu Que was just talking about.

Many alarms were going off in Li Jie’s head.

‘Why did my stupid master have to say that just right now?! Grandpa definitely heard him and I know grandpa said he would beat up my master as well. Don’t tell me those two are going to fight right now?’

He gulped nervously as he accepted the fact that his room would probably be completely annihilated in the inevitable fight. As long as he could escape unscathed, he would consider it a success.

“Oh? Did you say you were going to beat me up?” The elder nonchalantly said, but his next two words completely defied Li Jie’s expectations, “Little Bird?”

The anger on Zhu Que’s face quickly turned to half respect and half fear. One of his knees dropped to the ground; with his head facing downwards, he clasped his hands together and held them up in a sign of respect.

“Zhu Que greets master!”

Li Jie’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

-----

A minute later, the three were all seated on the floor, and the two adults were sharing a bottle of wine. Li Jie sat nervously, listening to the chat between master and disciple.

“Little Bird, it’s been 14 years since we last saw each other... how could you not greet your master when you returned to the sect?” The elder said with a slight smile on his face.

“Hahaha, I thought you’d be dead by now, master!” Zhu Que said, taking a swig of wine, “You look the same as you did when I first became your disciple! How many decades ago was that...?”

He began counting with his fingers, managing to reach 8, before his master interrupted him.

“Ahh nevermind that. I don’t want to hear how old I am. I’ll excuse the matter of you threatening to beat me up for now since we have a much bigger problem on our hands.”

He looked over to the tense Li Jie.

“Well how about that boy? Turns out your master was my disciple, I guess that makes you my grand-disciple! Anyway I overheard what you said and while I don’t know for sure what happened, I have an idea.”

He took a sip of wine in order to gather his thoughts before continuing.

“Simply put, I believe you’ve done something to offend the Heavens. And as a result, they have cut you off from the qi of the world.”

Li Jie furrowed his brow in consternation.

“Grandpa, I can’t imagine anything that I’ve done would offend the Heavens... Unless it was refining that pearl?”

“Hmm, I don’t believe refining the pearl itself defied the Heavens. But rather the benefit, or perhaps curse, you received from the pearl violated the laws laid down by the Heavens.”

Zhu Que interjected, “What do you mean by that, master?”

“The new sense that Li Jie was talking about, I believe it may have to do something with a Dao.”

As soon as he said “Dao”, a mixture of feelings, primarily confusion and stupefaction, filled both Li Jie’s and Zhu Que’s faces.

“Dao? How could Li Jie possibly create a Dao? Isn’t that only possible for peak level Immortal Realm cultivators?”

Li Jie recalled the lecture that his master had given him a few days ago regarding Dao. The ultimate goal of cultivators was to achieve their own Dao that could explain how the natural laws of the world worked. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that his new sense seemed to align with the idea of a Dao.

The elder looked at Li Jie and said, “Li Jie, what I’m about to tell you is only known by a few people in the entire country. It’s regarding the sixth realm of cultivation, the Exalted Realm.

“You may have been taught in class that not much is known about the Exalted Realm, but the truth is we know quite a bit about it. The most relevant piece of knowledge is the fact that in order to enter the Exalted Realm, one must find their Dao.”

“Wait, does that mean I’m an Exalted Realm cultivator now? I still feel the same as before though...”

“Well that’s the thing, we aren’t sure. Honestly everything about this situation is backwards. If it is true that you now have a Dao, then it would seem as if a Dao does not automatically make you an Exalted Realm cultivator, but rather allows you to become one. Since Exalted Realm cultivators disappeared from the continent nearly 20,000 years ago, we do not know for sure.”

A brief moment of silence descended upon them, as they all thought about the implications of Li Jie having a Dao.

Zhu Que broke the silence by saying, “Well, we don’t know for sure he has a Dao. And this whole situation seems odd. Why would the Heavens cut him off? From what I understand, Exalted Realm cultivators still absorb world qi to cultivate further. In any case, I want to try something.”

He waved his hand and a bottle of pills came out of his spatial ring. He gave them to Li Jie and motioned for him to take the pills.

“These are Qi Nourishment Pills. They provide raw qi to refine when consumed but only work on Nascent Realm cultivators. We distribute a couple of these pills each month to all outer court disciples. Try taking one to see if you can refine it.”

Li Jie popped one of the pills into his mouth and entered a meditative state, refining the pill. Less than 5 seconds later, he opened his eyes again and smiled.

“It worked master!”

But for some reason, shock filled both the elder and Zhu Que’s face.

“Li Jie, you took only 5 seconds to refine that pill?”

“Yes grandpa, why do you ask?”

The elder didn’t respond, instead pondering deeply on something. Zhu Que answered instead.

“Li Jie, most people would take an entire night to refine that pill, even longer for 4th level cultivators...” His voice drifted off as another question entered his mind, “How much qi did you manage to refine from that pill?”

“Umm let’s see... Before, I was well over halfway to the 5th level, now I’d say I’m about the same actually.”

A frown appeared on Zhu Que’s face.

“Those pills were not normal Qi Nourishment Pills. They were higher quality ones intended for use by talented cultivators. Normally one should have pushed you all the way into the 5th level and then some.”

Li Jie’s smile diminished but only slightly. Thinking about it, it did feel like the pill was just a snack to him. All of a sudden, the elder took out a sphere from his spatial ring and gave it to Li Jie.

“Here, try refining this.”

“Master are you crazy?! That’s a monster core! It he tried to take it into his body, the magical beast soul still inside it would clash with Li Jie’s dantian, causing irreversible damage! Not to mention the fact that there’s simply too much energy inside a core. Even alchemists are only able take advantage of a small part of the core’s essence!”

“Trust me, this should... *Ahem* will work.”

Hesitatingly slightly, Li Jie decided to trust the elder and swallowed the monster core in its entirety. Inside his dantian, the monster core roared mightily and clashed against the core of Li Jie’s cultivation. Quickly conjuring the flames, Li Jie allowed them to consume the monster core. However, as soon as the monster core detected the flames, it became stable, as if in fear of the flames.

Just like with the pearl, the flames consumed the core hungrily, refining its essence and soul. Li Jie opened his eyes a minute later to see an expectant Zhu Que.

He smiled once again, “It worked grandpa. This time I definitely felt a noticeable increase in my cultivation. I should be almost 3/4ths to the 5th level.”

Zhu Que breathed a huge sigh of relief and the elder nodded with a slight smile.

“What an interesting grand-disciple. He has possibly already found his Dao and he can actually refine a monster core. Little Bird, have the sect bring out some Nascent Realm monster cores and a few Flowering Realm ones as well.”

“If it’s just some Nascent Realm ones and a few Flowering Realm ones then we should be okay... I just hope Li Jie doesn’t have to start consuming them like candy. What a shame it would be if a single boy managed to wipe out the entire finances of a great sect.”

While Nascent cores and Flowering cores could be obtained by a major sect like the Soaring Flame Sect with relative ease, Forging Realm cores were considerably harder to obtain in large amounts. Hunting magical beasts posed incredible danger to cultivators and higher realm beasts were more rare and good at avoiding impossible fights. Refining Realm cores could create entire conflicts between sects or countries in order to obtain them.

Li Jie felt his stress and tension evaporate like water in a desert. Bowing to the two adults, he said, “I thank master and grandpa for saving me!”

To him, his cultivation was one of the most important assets in the world. Whether it be to save his mother, to protect his friends, or to earn respect from others, power remained the single most critical factor.

“Hahaha, no problem. By the way master, why did you come here in the first place?”

“Oh that’s right, I almost forgot.” The elder said while taking out a small egg the size of his palm from a small pouch. It pulsed with a reddish energy and emitted heat that Li Jie could feel from a meter away. Its rugged surface seemed to suggest that it was an ancient artifact, possibly existing even before the Immortal Tiger Empire was formed.

The elder handed it over to Li Jie while saying, “This was the gift I was talking about earlier.”

Li Jie cast his spiritual sense into the egg and found that, to his surprise, something living existed inside of it. But before he could investigate it further, the egg suddenly moved in his hand, and on the timeworn eggshell, a small crack appeared.