Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 456

Songs of Survival (III)

My head hurt.

It hurt more than it had in years. It hurt so bad that all I wanted to do was go back to being unconscious, despite knowing I had to get up immediately and figure out where the hell I ended up at.

And yet, the single act of opening my eyes was so torturous it made me question whether I had any pain tolerance at all or whether the pain simply was that powerful.

I was still inside the chariot, its warm light helping me adjust to the world a bit more gently. Groaning, I just barely managed to force myself to sit up; a good chunk of my bones were still broken, my Qi reserves were surprisingly sapped, and judging by the fact that even the pill-mendable wounds were still in the process of healing, I can't imagine it's been that long since I passed out.

Maybe an hour? Two?

Regardless, before doing anything else, I closed my eyes and started meditating upon the Surging Spirit Art. I needed my bones mended fast, and the pills simply wouldn't be quick enough on their own. Thanks to sapping the kids' understanding of the art, I'd gone beyond my primitive understanding and toward a more nuanced one.

As such, I was able to carefully guide motes of Qi that had been 'purified', as it were, by the art toward the most crucial areas: my ribs, first. Four, exactly, were cracked, and two seemed to be completely broken. Luckily, none pierced anything of importance, so there was no internal bleeding, but the fact that I could barely breathe without wincing in pain meant I couldn't do anything before fixing it.

Surging Spirit Art was, not to toot my own horn, kind of heaven-defying. I already experienced its effects on occasion and even saw kids heal massive gashes in the matter of minutes, but the fact that I could watch in real time as the cracked bones began to mend and the broken ones began to fasten together, with Qi gently wrapping around the broken ridges and melding them together...

It was insane.

Truly, utterly, completely insane.

Bit by bit, broken ribs began to fuse back together, while other, shallower wounds also healed up. All in all, it took me about two hours of concentrating to fix (mostly) the most broken my body had ever been in this world.

Then again, considering what I endured... it's a miracle I'm only this hurt. Who I worried about was Xi Zhao--he neither had a chariot, like me, nor the ability to fly, like Liao Xinya. Though extremely talented and remarkably strong for his realm, that aftershock wasn't a joke. Honestly, I don't think I could produce an attack anywhere close to it, and I imagine even those with a couple of realms on me would struggle to do so.

... I could only have faith in him, I guess. For now.

Taking a deep breath and ignoring the still-present headache, I swapped from the destroyed robes into a fresh set and slowly peeked out of the chariot. Luckily, I suppose, I at least didn't end up going backwards to the desert. Instead, I seemed to be up on top of some sort of a mountain, as all I could see around me was dirt and stone as it extended up above.

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Carefully exiting the chariot, I did confirm, at least, that I was on a mountain. What mountain? Where? Which direction?

... yeah.

I wasn't all that high up, and, most importantly, when I turned around, I clocked roughly where I landed--westward of where I was a couple of hours ago.

The vast swath of nothing stretched in the distance like an ancient scar upon the world, and my heart, once again, stopped.

The sheer gravity of what transpired belted against me like a bolt of lightning; though it pained me to use the mirror, that was the only way we were going to survive that. But... what was that, anyway? It wasn't an attack of that beast. Hell, I don't even think it was its desperate self-immolation attempt to drag us down with it.

Though I did amplify it a decent bit through reflecting it, the scale was... mesmerizing. If something like this happened back on Earth, it would literally be considered one of the most catastrophic things ever in the history of the planet.

Shuddering, I wondered for a moment if I died and this is neurons simply stitching together a pleasant 'passing', but I chose to believe in this reality. Especially considering that my periphery is completely overcome by system notifications. Perhaps more so than ever before.

[--Warning! Presence of Imperial-grade attack detected. Host is recommended to flee from the area immediately]

[Eternity is feeling anxious; it offers to defend against the attack]

[Cost: 500,000,000CP]

[Host has insufficient CP]

[...]

[Critical Warning]

[Spirit Immolation Discovered]

[Spirit Immolation: Even the most nascent of Spirits contain within them the Essence of Dao; those either mad enough or nefarious enough to know the method may immolate the Spirit, burning Dao itself in the process. As a retaliation, the Spirit immolates with such violence that it will consume anything and everything nearby, including the person who immolated it]

[--Congratulations, Host. You have achieved an unprecedented feat--you have successfully deflected Spirit Immolation]

[Though there were a few throughout history who managed to survive Spirit Immolation, none had managed to deflect it]

[Reward: Primeval Spirit Stone (???) x1]

[...]

[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully slain Silent Serpent (quasi-Void Transformation Realm)... You have successfully slain Lu Dong...]

[...]

[Congratulations, Host. You have achieved a remarkable feat--you have slain at least 20,000 living things with a singular attack]

[Rewards]

[Reward 1: A Major Trait]

[Reward 2: Killing Intent (Nascent)]

[Reward 3: 3,000CP]

[...]

[You have drawn interest from the fading glimpse]

[...]

[Warning: due to the nature of the attack, two uses of the Tortoise Mirror have been consumed. The item has been severely damaged and, in the process, has revealed its true form]

[...]

[Xuanwu's Gift (???) (Damaged) -- a Symbol of north and winter, of eternity and strength, it looms over life itself. Its single breath could infuse a mortal child with a million years of living. It withstood the tempest of time, enduring eons as light flickered and vanished. Cycles continued, creation and destruction tangled in a dance that cannot end and yet must, and it endured. One. Two. Ten. It could not end, and thus it offered a gift. A small piece of its shell, meant to protect against any and all harm. It can withstand any one attack imaginable]

[Note: the shell is severely damaged as Spirit Immolation is an attack of Dao itself. Seek one of its descendants to see if it is possible to repair it]

[...]

[Primeval Spirit Stone (???) -- one of the few remnant things that exist that predate Dao itself. It contains within it not Qi or even a Spirit, but a vestige of something far greater that has long since vanished in the epochs of time. There are precisely four objects that survive from the Epoch of Silence, and the stone is one among them. Perhaps studying it deeply might yet unveil something deeper within it]

[...]

[New Major Trait Unlocked: Undying (Divine)]

[Undying (Divine) -- survived that which would have killed almost everybody else. Once in a lifetime, may trigger the trait to survive a singular blow]

[Killing Intent (Nascent) -- only those who've basked in the torrent of blood and destruction may within them condense an intent of death itself. Though merely an embryo distantly squirming in the depths of the mind, it can be temporarily awoken and projected, terrifying those unaccustomed to it. It can only be evolved further by persistent and unending slaughter]

... huh.

Wait a second--did you just say I killed 20,000-plus things in one blow?

Oh boy.

Where's Long Tao to rationalize this to my very unprepared brain?!

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