Poison Qi swirled, coursing through the veins of the boy as Liuxiang purified the deformed and clogged pathways. The state the boy’s pathways were in had left Liuxiang with little hope at any chances of recovery.

He’d heard of elders in the sect capable of restoring cultivation in certain scenarios, but even they wouldn’t be able to save this boy, merely heal him to leave a peaceful life at best and die younger than most.

“What’s taking him so long? Ya reckon he’s lost?” Su Lin asked as Liuxiang wiped his hair to the side. The rat-like boy had grown used to his presence by now, and, against all odds, had not responded with confusion or disgust when he’d become aware of his peculiarities.

“This one doubts it. Senior is still moving through and this one can sense disturbances in the core,” Liuxiang replied.

“He’s there, but something's wrong,” Yan Yun muttered, and Liuxiang glanced at the Yan girl. The Yan clan weren’t nobles, yet the influence of the clan was undeniable. He’d already heard of the young prodigy the clan was raising.

“Zhi Zhu still thinks Lu Jie was putting on a front,” Zhi Zhu said, diverting his thoughts back. Liuxiang slightly shook his head with a light smile, not replying to his spirit.

It had come as a surprise to him, to have Lu Jie not show any kind of reaction. Even in his clan, those with the poison bloodline were… avoided. He’d come to terms with his life and reality long ago, and had been prepared for Lu Jie to rethink their relationship. Yet the curiosity about his bloodline that ignored all other factors took even him by surprise.

Liuxiang felt his Qi shift. He had slowly but surely been finding his nature returning to Yin, as the Yang Qi mellowed out the closer he got to breaking through. Liuxiang was fond of his feminine side a fair bit, seeing how it’d been what he’d spent his childhood as. Although there were certainly benefits to the Yang aspect Qi as well, including an increase in strength at the cost of dexterity.

A groan came from the boy, catching Liuxiang’s attention. He refocused his efforts, pulsing his Qi through the boy as he spread vitality all around. A frown covered Liuxiang’s face when his Qi seemed to vanish, greedily being sucked into the core.

Liuxiang extended his senses, as he took out his needles. He pressed his hand against Lu Jie's, which was set against the boy’s dantian and took a look. A shuddering howling crack spread through his mind, as he sensed deep unending darkness pulsing within.

“Is- is that supposed to be happening?” Su Lin asked as Liuxiang opened his eyes, noticing black splotches on the boy’s skin.

“Miasma, get Lu Jie away now!” Yan Yun shouted as her lightning pulsed.

“No,” Liuxiang spoke, infusing his voice with Qi. His aura spread out, lashing as the Yan girl stopped for a moment. He wasn’t her match, yet his aura would still unnerve her despite the difference in realm.

“Senior’s spirit is still in there, things will go very wrong if you separate him now,” Liuxiang spoke, simultaneously instructing Zhi Zhu.

His spirit grabbed the needles he needed, as he began to place them on the boy’s skin. Poison Qi touched the end of the silver needles, turning them a dark black, as he pierced the boy’s skin. The poison wouldn’t harm him, but it would stop the miasma from spreading.

“I don’t understand, why is he suddenly turning into a Demon? There should be no way-” Yan Yun muttered, as her Qi was unsettled and Liuxiang held back a sigh. She was like all lightning cultivators, quick to anger and impulsive.

“At least she’s not as bad as the spirit rat. Zhi Zhu hopes the moon tempers her spirit well.”

“There could be many reasons, but now is not the time. This one has heard of such occurrences. Without the core to protect the spirit, cultivators can often fall prey to spirits and wraiths. Perhaps Senior entering the core allowed such a pathway to be opened,” Liuxiang spoke, as his hands continued to move across the boy, inserting needles at the right points.

Had he been a normal human, sweat would’ve dotted his forehead. Instead, Liuxiang quietly hissed beneath his breath, letting out his frustration. He didn’t like doing it. The sound was too inhuman, too unsettling, yet the frustration of the task had bested his ingrained habits. He still forgot to blink sometimes as well.

Mingling within society was tough.

“And that is precisely why Zhi Zhu will never be doing something silly as taking on a human form. She’ll let her sisters have their fun and wait for them to cry about how they only have two eyes and four limbs and can’t even climb walls anymore.”

Liuxiang smiled at Zhi Zhu’s words. She knew he was worried, even if he didn’t show it on his face like others, and the words were meant as a distraction for him to calm down. He couldn’t deny the effectiveness.

“Zhang is stable. For now- but Senior. As long as Senior’s spirit remains within, this one can’t do anything. We can only wait,” Liuxiang said, as he heard a muttered curse from Su Lin.

“This was a bad idea, I should ‘ave known. Ya can’t fix this stuff- I should’ve thought more,” Su Lin muttered, staring at Zhang, as he clenched his fist.

Liuxiang turned towards the boy, silently staring at him. He could tell that Su Lin felt unnerved by his look. It did so with most people. “Panic would lead to nothing. And besides- if Zhang was going to turn, it would’ve happened a while ago. If his spirit has held on for so long, then it won’t break today. This one isn't asking you to trust any of us. But trust your brother,” Liuxiang said.

Su Lin stared at him for a while, before letting out a breath as he nodded.

“Bah, what are you kids doing now?” an old woman exclaimed, walking in with a cane. Her skin was a sheet of wrinkles upon wrinkles as the smell of spirit herbs permeated from her. Her eyes were sharp as they soon settled upon Liuxiang, and the sleeping Zhang behind him.

“Yi? Doesn’t matter. Good use of poison right there, I would’ve had some words if it’d been any less precise,” the old granny muttered, as she took a look around. “The boy really went ahead and tried to challenge the heavens didn’t he?” she said, staring at Lu Jie, muttering something to herself.

“Is there anything we can do?” Yan Yun asked.

“Watch, and let the Heavens decide,” the woman said, and so they watched.

Qi swirled around Lu Jie, as the pill in his hand, poured Lunar Qi within the dantian of the boy Zhang. It swirled and it circled, spreading around all over.

The dark swirls of Qi churned, as the splotches on Zhang’s skin began to fade. The miasma ebbed and it flowed, before it soon began to gather around his core, and then, towards Lu Jie.

Lunar Qi flooded Zhang, as life began to return to his body. Yet, things weren't done. The Qi within the room began to swirl in a frenzy and Qi radiated from Lu Jie’s body, energy permeating from his dantian as the world around him began to shake. Something was taking root, as a pulse of Qi spread out washing out in a massive wave.

Liuxiang stumbled back from the intensity of the Qi, his pupils dilating as he hissed.

They had all felt that. Any cultivator that was nearby had felt that. A powerful pulse of Qi had just spread all over.

“H-he’s breaking through. This- this can’t be,” Yan Yun muttered as she rushed towards the nearby window peeking outside, her eyes widened in surprise as she stared at Lu Jie. Liuxiang saw the girl’s hand shaking as her Qi churned in turmoil. “The Qi of the heavens are swirling… a tribulation has begun. Lu Jie… has begun a tribulation. There’s a storm outside and- Heavens. He’s going to die like this.”

Liuxiang hissed, audibly this time, as his eyes turned towards Lu Jie. The last tribulation he’d heard of was when an Elder had broken through into the 7th realm. A young prodigy who’d worked for decades and had become one of the youngest Elders in the clan.

A tribulation for entering the fourth realm? The heavens themselves will shake, as every cultivator in the city would become aware of it and would rush to seek the clan that had gained a new Elder.

Just what was Lu Jie up to?

***

There is this sensation that people have, this odd premonition about things. Be it a hunch or a very strong gut feeling. I knew a fair few people, even those of more rational and scientific inclinations, who had these hunches, these gut feelings, which they trusted.

I’d always found it foolish. To trust an impulse was stupidity. I’d heard the claims that it was instinctual logic, or evolution or whatnot, and had called bullshit on it all. I’d never had this hunch after all and I was doing just fine.

That is until today. Today I had a hunch, and it was telling me that I was in deep shit.

Miasma and Qi churned in a torrential storm within my core. Leaves blossomed from the seed within my dantian, spreading out and yearning to bud as heavenly Qi poured within me. The lotus I’d established within Zhang’s core blossomed to form a massive flower of pure Qi, spreading its light as the world around me began to creak and groan.

The shattered remnants of Zhang’s core pulsed and throbbed as the Qi of the heavens began to flood them. Light spread within the dark world, as I consumed all the wraith, wrestling the two opposing energies together, as I held them in a perpetual cycle. Two cycles, yet the same whole.

Vaguely I heard Labby’s voice in my mind. I couldn’t make out the words in the state I was in, yet I could sense her concern. Sheldon’s spirit touched my own, as I felt my Qi tremble from the great spirit’s touch. I smiled, a pained expression on my face, as I continued to gather my energy.

My spirit felt like it would be torn in two under the weight of the forces it carried. I had no idea what would come of breaking through in a place like this, yet something told me, there wouldn’t be much of me left after the process either way.

From the very first day that I’d changed my cultivation method. There had been an insight that I had been failing to recognise. Two cycles, and their cores. My path, and the steps I needed to take. The hints had been present all around me, yet, the memories I’d inherited from Lu Jie refused to let me believe something absurd like that.

Perhaps it was a good thing. It had let me live a bit longer.

I opened my eyes, watching a white expanse in front of me. My hands were dark splotches of black with twisted claws jutting forth from them. The miasma hadn’t left my spirit untouched as it had made its way in.

I focused my will, shifting my spirit back into a human form as I pushed the miasma further in. I felt at my core, at the second circle forming within. The realm Lu Jie had so desired to reach. The realm he’d so desperately struggled to get to. Now it hung like a noose upon my neck.

My eyes shifted to Labby, the little rat crackling with nervous thunder. Somewhere along the way, I’d cut off our bond to protect her. Yet even now, I felt as if I could hear her thoughts. I smiled at her, feeling oddly calm as my form began to fade away from the turmoil of Qi and Miasma within my core.

A bright lotus bloomed in front of me, roots of Qi spreading all over. The second spirit landmark I’d made. I could sense the first one, all the way back in my chamber, connected to my soul. It had been a success.

Zhang would be healed. I couldn’t bring back his cultivation but with this, he would at least be able to live like a normal person. It was the most that I could manage for him.

Thunder flashed around me, as the heavenly Qi began to swirl. Lightning roiled and I cursed how little time I had. Dumb as fuck tribulation clouds couldn’t even wait till I had a moment with my spirits. It only served to prove the fact that there was something conscious within the Qi itself to me.

“Stay away Labby, Sheldon. I really don’t know what I’m doing here,” I said. Labby squeaked in reply, protesting.

I turned to look at Sheldon, who stared at me with his dark green eyes silently. A moment later, the turtle grabbed Labby in his mouth and dragged her away.

I nodded in gratitude.

My form began to dissipate. I’d held off the breakthrough for too long, and the turmoil of forces desired a release. The Qi rumbled, asking for me to abandon the Miasma, to breakthrough and consume the Gu within me to progress. It wished for me to follow the Path it ordained for me, and bend to its will.

I closed my eyes, ignoring the thunderous force of the Qi, as I sensed the insight that I’d gained.

Within the seed, in its blossoms, born of two opposing natures of energy were words. It was in no language I recognised, and simultaneously all of them. The words whispered to me, in my soul. The First Law.

The insight that signified the first step I’d taken. An immutable truth of the world around me. I had barely scratched its surface, but even just that was enough to push me forward into a new realm. I knew the first step within my Path now, and it wasn’t the Path the heavens wished to force upon me.

I opened my eyes and faced the Heavens above.

“I refuse.”

The world stilled around me as if time itself had slowed down.

“I refuse to progress on your Path.”

The Qi trembled, raging at my words. It swirled, and crackled with lightning, blinding my sight. It was a warning. The moment I progressed upon the insight, lightning would tear my spirit apart. I felt anger fill my chest.

“Go on, strike me down. That is exactly what you’d planned to do, hadn’t you? I’m starting to realise why it is so difficult to spread knowledge in this world. Why, even when people live for centuries, no major breakthroughs occur. It is because of you, isn’t it? The moment someone gains the right knowledge, the right piece of information. You come down with your thunder and lightning, ready to strike them down,” I said to the heavens, my fury boiling forth.

“How many have you struck down? How many lives have you smothered? How much knowledge have you vanquished?” I shouted, finding something in my spirit melding. The memories from Lu Jie began to boil forth. His spirit submerged in mine, and mine in his.

I bared my teeth in defiance.

“You held me back. For months, for years, I struggled all by myself. I pushed and pushed and trained yet nothing. I was looked down on, cursed at, the scum of the sect, not knowing his limits. They called me a fool, they thought I was arrogant, but I didn’t give up. Up until the very end, I didn’t give up. And now, now that I’ve finally touched upon one of the Heaven's Truths, you try to strike me down?” I shouted, rage filling my spirit as Qi and Miasma boiled forth from my core. Thunder crackled from the heavens, rising to a crashing wave.

“I refuse. I do not follow your rules. This is my Path. A Path of knowledge, and a Path of understanding. One that wished to bring change to this world. And you? You are in my way.”

Lightning struck my spirit, as my core shattered in two. My spirit ripped itself out of Zhang’s core, as I was carried by torrents of thunder and lightning. The seed within me pulsated, burning from an overwhelming amount of Heavenly Qi pouring into it. I felt my life fading from my grasp.

I closed my eyes, cycling my Qi as darkness covered my sight.