Poison Qi swirled, as Liuxiang sat on the floor, legs folded beneath him. A bowl full of crushed herbs sat in front of him, as he watched a thin near transparent poison drip down his silver needle, before dropping into the boil.

With a hiss, smoke rose from the herbs, the green leaves turning into a deep violet slush. Liuxiang watched carefully before dipping a thin needle into the mixture, coating it in the dark poison that soon began to turn invisible.

“Is Liuxiang still thinking over what happened?” Zhi Zhu asked, in her whispering chittering voice.

“Is Zhi Zhu not?” Liuxiang asked calmly, continuing to dip needles one at a time within the poison. They served as much of a purpose in healing as in killing, and he’d been trained to be prepared to do either at a moment’s notice.

“A tribulation at the fourth realm. Strange pills, and even stranger knowledge. Zhi Zhu feels wary of the boy, despite his simple demeanour. What else is he hiding? Even her Qi tells her to slay the boy whenever the vile Gu comes forth.”

“You know not to heed such instincts. We are better than the impulses we carry,” Lixiang said, finishing the last of his needles.

“Does Liuxiang plan to tell his father?”

Liuxiang snapped towards Zhi Zhu, pupils wide as he stared at the spider with an unflinching gaze. A quiet hiss rumbled from his throat as he turned back around.

“Zhi Zhu wouldn’t bring this up if the matter weren’t so grave. Liuxiang should know what this would mean for him in the clan, if he returned with such great secrets.”

Liuxiang took a long breath, a quiet hiss under his lips as he closed his eyes. He’d been hissing far too much recently. It was shameful.

A moment later, he opened his eyes again. “This one does not plan to share things this one is trusted not to share.”

“Zhi Zhu understands your attachment. The boy is one of the few to not treat Liuxiang any different for who he is, but such attachments will only-”

Liuxiang raised his hand, cutting his spirit off. “This one had expected more from Zhi Zhu. Just think for a moment and Zhi Zhu will understand why this one does so. It is not just morals, but practicality that drives this one’s actions.”

“Liuxiang finds the benefits greater than the immediate rewards,” Zhi Zhu said, a moment of thought later.

“It would be beneficial for this one to know Senior better. Not to mention, this one would choose to trust Senior more, over this one’s father. Not a difficult choice, if one is something close to a friend this one is intrigued about and the other the man who shunned us out here,” Liuxiang turned to stare at Zhi Zhu.

“Zhi Zhu understands. Apologies for bringing it up.”

Liuxiang nodded, letting the topic go. A few moments of silence passed between the two of them, when Liuxiang sensed an approaching presence. A dim shimmer of Qi from a familiar feline he’d become acquainted with.

With a pulse of his Qi, Liuxiang opened the entrance to his chamber, as the orange cat walked in with a scroll tied around its neck.

Liuxiang watched the cat, as it stared right back, not moving any closer. Most animals disliked Liuxiang’s presence, his natural aura unnerving to all but a few reptiles. Yet the cat remained perfectly calm and still as it stood, waiting, a strange intelligence in his eyes.

Liuxiang moved closer, carefully approaching the little cat. There was an understanding between him and the little animal, on the cusp of turning into a spirit itself. An understanding born of two predators.

Gently he took the scroll, opening it up and taking a glance. A frown began on Liuxiang’s face, soon followed by bewilderment and then a small smile tugging upon his sleeve.

“Rare to see Liuxiang so expressive. What does the letter say?” Zhi Zhu asked, moving closer.

Liuxiang put down the scroll, and turned to look at Zhi Zhu, his smile turning wider. “That this one’s choice with Senior was correct.”

He picked up some herbs and gave them to the cat. The little cat licked the herbs, before, to his surprise, moving in for some pets. After a brief moment of shock, Liuxiang hesitantly ran his hand across the little cat’s back for a few moments, before the cat walked away, and ran out of the doors.

Liuxiang stared at his palm in surprise, feeling an odd emotion build up in his chest. He couldn’t recall when an animal had approached him with such affection before. With his bloodline, possibly never.

“Liuxiang can’t be all secretive about this. Zhi Zhu wants to know,” Zhi Zhu spoke up, in a rare sight of protest and a muffled laugh escaped Liuxiang’s mouth.

“Senior has requested this one’s help. Zhi Zhu will be able to see it for herself. Let us move out now, it would be best not to let Senior wait for too long. This one has a feeling that this year’s tournament is going to be slightly exceptional.”

***

Qi pulsed through my arms and fingers, sweat beading and covering my forehead as I balanced a boulder half as big as me on one of my fingers. I’d walked out and picked the closest boulder I’d found and brought it to my chamber for a test.

A brief few moments of testing had shown my physical capabilities far more potent than before, even if I felt wrung out and exhausted after the whole ordeal.

I set the boulder down, and punched it, thrusting my Qi out as I did. Where I’d braced myself for some stinging in my hand, I felt the solid rock give away instead, as a small crack ran through it. I didn’t manage to smash through it as I would’ve expected a proper cultivator to be able to do, but the fact that I managed to crack a rock that probably weighed five times as much as me, if not more, was enough to leave me stunned.

Tempering the body was a concept I was familiar with, but so far, something like that had been far outside of Lu Jie’s means, and my own means, needing rare herbs, arts and resources. It was a money sink, only available to the young arrogant masters from big sects and powerful clans. Not something a nobody like me would be able to achieve.

Yet, somehow, the cycling method involving my spirit anchor had managed to do just that. I had my suspicions on this. Particularly in specifics regarding the cultivation method where I’d cultivated not to the Heavens, but to the earth, using my Gu. It had been different, an entirely new sensation, that had previously been unfamiliar to me, yet it felt right.

I’d sensed the gunk leaving my body, the Gu killing the impurities. I suspect it was something along the lines of artificial aging, and killing of cells, then discarding the junk while the Qi repaired the damage. But I couldn’t speak to that without performing tests.

I took the rock, smashing it a few times into smaller pieces before I threw it outside my window, one large chunk at a time.

Dusting my hands, I walked to my notes. A brief glance through and a reading of the First Law and my hypothesis regarding the First Law later, I moved to a new page and began to write down what I’d just learnt.

There was a cycle. That much, I’d been aware of from the very start. But, from what the voice, which I still didn’t know where it’d come from, but if I had to guess then something akin to the spirit of the world? I settled on calling it the world spirit.

The world spirit had spoken to me of the cycle, and the formation of the world. The Heavens formed the Yang, heavens being synonymous with the sky. Which explained why the Heavens method of a tribulation was a storm and lightning strike. And the earth was the Yin, the deathbed of all life.

These two sides formed the world together as one, but something caused them to separate. Forming… Gu and Qi? Or perhaps, Gu and Qi used to be in harmony, yet a divergance caused the split between them, which led to the opposing forces becoming anathema to each other.

It would explain then, why the Qi had asked for me to abandon the Gu and Miasma, and to consume it, giving in to the Qi itself. Oddly enough, the same instincts could be felt from the Gu itself, only that the Miasma was violent as a baseline, and it only just got more intense when the Qi around me was enraged.

Oddly enough, ever since I’d gotten through the tribulation, I’d found the whispers of Qi gone from my mind. There had been no impulses, asking me to erase the Miasma anymore.

My brush flew across the pages, as I began to further write down my thoughts. The world spirit had mentioned children, who had disagreed with each other causing the split. Perhaps it was referring to the split between humans and demons?

Then, what would fix the cycle if it was broken? The world was governed by two forces, that are separated from one another. When they should be one and the same. The Heavens, the Earth, and people in between, channelling and bringing them together.

I sensed at my core, at the two separate cores. They pulled towards each other, attracting and repelling and spinning in a perpetual cycle. Yet something was clearly incomplete. The little sprout at the heart of Gu and Qi core signified something, yet I failed to understand what.

What and how would life and death come together? Exist in harmony within people? If Gu mingled with Qi, the two would destroy each other, and I saw no way to change that.

I sighed, closing the notes. There was a lot to unravel. The world spirit, as I’d just named it, could be anything. That voice, the spirit anchor, and the method to restore the broken cycle of the Qi and Gu. I lacked information, and I needed as much as I could get.

I sat for a few moments in silence, before deciding to shift my attention. Opening a different set of notes, I flipped through the pages before I landed on my prototype drugnade ver 2.0.

A smile covered my face as I looked at the stupid diagram I’d drawn as the functional drugnade. It was a simple design, and one that would likely need a lot of testing, but my heart still thundered at the possibility of how potent this discovery could be.

I spread out the notes, and began to go through them once more.

There would be a metal covering with shells attached to it, to act as projectiles upon the explosion. A thin hollow cylinder would be inside the drugnade, with three separate compartments. I would need formations to activate the grenade within them, else the mechanism would be too flimsy, especially without any proper springs etc to make functional mechanical triggers.

I’d also found out that the reaction between Qi infused water and Gu was far quicker than trying to use pills, so the first section would be my Qi infused water. The second would contain the original drugnade pill within it.

The last chamber would contain the key ingredient of the Qi-Gu dual drugnade. A pill made out of Gu.

It was the biggest challenge I had to overcome in forming the drugnade. After giving some thought to my failure with crafting a pill with Gu, and my recent cultivation with the spirit anchor, I’d come to realise what I’d been doing wrong.

The five elements of the cauldron, spirit herb, and spirit stone were all based upon Qi. As such, the Gu reacted violently with them, turning them to ash the moment it came in contact. It had been silly to think I could send strands of Gu on its own would allow me to make a pill forged of Gu.

No, what I needed was a cauldron, with a formation infused not with Qi, but Gu. Flames that ran with Gu, spirit herbs, similar to the parasite in Taizhou that contained Gu within itself, and water that was saturated with Gu.

When I had all the elements combined, then, I should be able to craft the same fire drugnade, made not of Qi but Gu. Thankfully I had just the right spirit rat and turtle for the task.

I smiled at the thought, excitement filling my chest as I sensed a familiar presence heading towards my chamber. I got up from my seat, and headed towards the gate, to welcome Liuxiang in.

If the heavens would zap me with lightning, then I would just have to create drug nukes to blast its arrogance away. In the name of science!