Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 466

Death (III)

"What is Dao?" a soft voice mumbled into the void, deep, red eyes staring at the expunged nothing of everything.

Lua could not comprehend it--not the twisting, not the coiling, not the inversion, not the million other things that seemed to defy the natural order of things. In there, there was him--yet him was not him, but akin to someone drawing a figure of his from a distorted memory. Bits and pieces were there, fitting, but the figure was not.

"Are you sure about this?" he turned to the side and craned his neck, looking up at the leviathan standing by his side. Though his voice was soft, he had no doubt that the Divine Beast heard him.

"Endless cycles attempt to reinvent the wheel," a booming voice replied directly into his mind as the flimsy membrane of Dao itself trembled under its might. "Yet the tale remains the same. Be born, live, and die. Where once there were countless, there are now only a few. Child of man, when you first came to me with this... I thought not you capable. I thought you arrogant and dull; and yet, you have surprised me."

"I've surprised myself the most, truth be told," he chuckled. "I didn't think it was feasible, either. But, when you and Senior Zhurong first showed me the truth... I thought you were merely jesting a dull human child. And yet, time and again, I saw it. In the world. Errs of our own make. I knew, as have you all, it cannot go on. We cannot rely on cycles eternally to cleanse our forsaken world. I tried, with every bit of myself, but... this is the best I could do. It's not enough, Senior Xuanwu. It may stem the tide, but the waves shall undoubtedly swallow us whole once more."

"Dao is a song of struggle, mortal child," the voice replied. "Of it we all are born, yet against it we dare tread, seeking purpose higher than that of life or death. Even I, in all my eons of living, have not understood Dao--nor its intent. Though I survive them, I am like a child at the whims of the world--I can sense the cycle nearing, but all I can do is withdraw into my shell... and endure. We sought answers, but only darkness responded. Even if it allows the world another few years of living... it is better than most of what we had done."

"You guide us, Senior," Lua hastily said. "You give us light in this senseless darkness. Without you, we would have never even realized the existence of Qi, let alone cultivate it to become Emperors. Even if I had manifested this temporary solution, I was only capable of doing so because you've guided me all this while. Because you've selflessly shown me the truth."

"All this time I'd believed the senseless other was the necessary mirror, the opposite of Dao. As fire had water, and life had death, and heaven had earth--Dao, too, must have its opposite. The holy, pure, enduring... in contrast to the dying, decaying, and rotting. But... your little flower proved me wrong. Proved all of us wrong. To think that the sheddings of things unmade, of things unrealized, would become deeply cast shadows that linger in the never-where between things we cannot even perceive. No wonder... no wonder every cycle seemed to see diminished Qi. To purify this... it is a miracle we still endure."

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"... there's still hope," Lua continued. "I have a good friend that inspired me second only to you, Senior. I've never met another person in all my years of living who understood Dao so well. Have you heard of him, perhaps? Though he goes by many names, I like to call him Enduring Blade. Others prefer Divine, but he loathes it."

"Hm. I know the child you speak of; he came to me once, seeking the heart of one of my children."

Lua winced, his eyebrows dancing momentarily. Of course that idiot would do something so stupid! His entire life, Lua knew, was an exercise of stupid decisions that he somehow used to sharpen his blade.

"... could it be for a breakthrough? No... I can't think of a method that an Emperor would use to break through like that."

"He'd unearthed something ancient and forgotten, and had glimpsed the truth, not unlike you. He came to me in want of rebirth--a way to remake himself from anew. To become flawless."

"Uh..." even Lua could not offer an excuse. Perhaps, rather than calling him Enduring Blade, he ought to call him Mad Blade--as did a good number of others at this point.

"He will not be able to make sense of this either, mortal child," Xuanwu continued. "For he exists in the same light as you. We have made many contingencies, some still untouched; I shall leave one of my children behind as a guardian. Though the child is strong and enduring, he, too, will wane in time, slowly eroded by the unending storms of entropy."

"Thank you, Senior!" Lua bowed deeply. "I shall inform my descendants to worship and obey him as if--"

"--no, do not do such a thing. Merely tell them to not interfere. Shall the membrane of this place ever be disturbed and changed... there is no foretelling the kind of catastrophe that shall be unleashed. How many flowers have you made, little human?"

"Nine, Senior," Lua said, taking out the remaining eight--seven of them seemed fresh, while one was gently wilted. "I am ashamed of my incompetence, but dividing my soul any further is simply impossible for me."

"You have already achieved more than most. Leave one behind in the Sanctuary," Lua nodded. "Leave one to the Court; two to the Sages; scatter the remaining ones as you see fit. However, little child--do not tell them of what it is. Merely that it must be kept. I shall allow you a word of my voice, so they may understand their duty."

"... where will you go now, Senior? Home?"

"No," Xuanwu said, its voice deep and sonorous. "We have interfered a great deal into this cycle, far more than ever before. It has destabilized Qi and Laws of Dao. Should we fail in our current endeavors, and should the new cycle commence, I must be at the Heart as I sense Dao will be unable to endure it on its own. I have just enough Life Qi stored in me to ensure one cycle renews smoothly."

"But... you already sacrificed so much..."

"Dao breathed life into me, human child; when I was but a stone staring at the night sky. It has guided me as a mother would a child, and loved me out of my ignorance. I must be there, now, when it needs me. Ah--one last thing, child. Shall you ever meet someone holding a piece of my shell, know that the child was chosen by Dao itself, even if they are not of it."

"N-not... of Dao? Why would Dao choose someone like that?!"

"Hm. I wonder. We drift in an endless brume, the distant light of truth scintillating; though ignorance is anathema to us all, we must bask in it and embrace it. Only then, song permit, we might learn of the truth."

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