The Calamity's Comfort: I Forged My Own Cheat on a Dead Earth

Leon's eyes remained on the formation. The structure had finally stabilized. He had spent most of the night refining it, adjusting the flow between each component until the entire network could sustain itself. It was still made from basic formations, yet their combined effect had become something far more complicated. He could make it work; he just couldn't take it with him.

His gaze shifted toward Lyra, more specifically, toward the divination tool resting beside her. The strange device had always fascinated him. Its runes weren't arranged like the formations he'd been practicing; they seemed to interact with one another through subtler relationships, responding to things that weren't immediately visible.

Leon picked it up carefully, prompting Lyra to open one eye. "Careful. That's expensive."

"I know," he replied, turning it over in his hands.

Divination was supposed to rely on intuition and instinct more heavily than the other four arts, a rule that made perfect sense now that he had actually begun studying it. The tool wasn't simply reading the world; it was interpreting patterns—detecting tiny changes and connections that ordinary perception would never notice.

Leon activated his Sage Eyes, and the world transformed. Qi became visible. The runes on the tool seemed to breathe beneath his vision, their arrangements revealing layers he hadn't noticed before.

Leon stared at the hidden network, then his fingers began moving. He took out a piece of material and began drawing. A line, another, and then a branching pattern took shape. He stopped, changed the angle, and then added another layer. The formation reacted immediately.

Leon frowned, tracking the friction, and tried again. This time the pattern stabilized. His intuition tugged him toward another arrangement, and he followed it without hesitation.

The result was subtle, with nothing dramatic happening outwardly. Yet Leon could suddenly feel something beyond the cave—a faint disturbance, a trace of Qi. He closed his eyes, and the sensation disappeared. He opened them again, and it returned.

Leon smiled. Lyra sat upright, looking thoroughly alarmed. "What did you just do?"

"Made a divination formation."

"Say what now?"

Leon looked down at the glowing lines. "It works."

Lyra stared at him in disbelief. "That took you how long?"

Leon glanced at the cave entrance. "I don't know."

"Leon."

"A few hours maybe?"

Lyra rubbed her forehead, letting out an exhausted breath. "That's absurd. You are a freak of nature."

Leon returned to the formation. He wasn't finished. The basic structure was useful, but it was crude compared to Lyra's tool. He began adjusting it, adding layers that enhanced the sensitivity of the formation. Each change gave him another piece of information, and each piece made the next change easier as his intuition did the rest.

The formation gradually became more refined. Leon could feel the difference; divination wasn't simply seeing farther, it was recognizing relationships. The more relationships he could detect, the more accurately he could interpret the world, and with his intuition constantly guiding his adjustments, the process accelerated.

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Eventually, Leon leaned back. His gaze fell on the formation, then on the divination tool, then back to the formation as a new thought occurred to him. His formation problem already had an answer: Talismans. Dormant, portable formations. If he could reproduce the principles of a formation inside a medium that could be carried with him, then he wouldn't need to recreate everything every time he moved.

The thought immediately took hold, and Leon looked almost excited. Lyra noticed the shift. "I know that look. You're gonna set another cultivation record right?"

"I'm going to study talismans."

"Of course you are."

Leon returned to his work and began to cultivate again. The remaining Qi in his meridians gradually accumulated, pushing through cycle after cycle until nine cycles were complete. It was the final cycle of the third stage. When it completed, the sensation was unmistakable; his meridians expanded, his capacity increased again, and the third stage of the Bloodline Awakening Foundation Realm was officially complete.

Leon exhaled slowly, then immediately began preparing his first talisman. Lyra stared at him, threw her hands up, and groaned. "You just finished a breakthrough."

"Yes."

"You're supposed to rest."

"I'm studying."

"You've been awake almost the entire night."

Leon looked at her calmly. "That sounds like a problem for later."

Lyra sighed, shaking her head. "You're impossible." then in a more serious tone "Leon if you are able make talismans you need to keep it a secret and we need to have a talk about the situation on the continent."

"Okay" Leon began drawing. Unlike a formation, a talisman couldn't simply rely on its surroundings; the structure had to remain dormant, preserving the arrangement until activated, meaning the medium itself became part of the formation.

They had some sheepskin which could be cut and used as the base material for the talismans. He experimented with a simple heating talisman first. The first attempt failed completely. The second barely functioned. The third produced a tiny, brief burst of heat before collapsing into ash. Leon examined the charred remains. "Interesting."

He changed the arrangement, and the fourth worked, spreading a faint, steady warmth from the talisman. Leon nodded. "Good."

He tried another, then another, each one consuming Qi as his reserves began falling rapidly.

Across the cave, Maya opened her eyes. She sat up and immediately began her Sage Guidance. The beginning was smooth, then her rhythm faltered, but she quickly corrected it. Adrian was doing the same nearby. Neither of them could maintain it perfectly yet, but they could keep it going with great effort for short periods.

Adrian looked toward the back of the cave. "He hasn't stopped."

Maya glanced at Leon, then turned back to Adrian. "Apparently not. Now that I think about it, I've never seen Leon truly rest before. Back at the company, if he wasn't speedrunning a big project, he would be speedrunning a video game or a light novel. Sometimes, if it was an idle game, he would be playing it on one screen while watching an anime on the other."

Maya resumed her breathing, and the two continued practicing, barely maintaining their Sage Guidance, but maintaining it nonetheless.

Leon finished another talisman, and his Qi finally ran dry. He looked at the collection beside him—a handful of basic talismans. He had successfully taken something stationary and turned it into something portable.

Leon leaned back against the wall. For once, he allowed himself to rest.

Outside, the storm had begun to weaken. Snow still fell across the wasteland, but the wind had lost its fury. Lyra checked the divination tool, her brow furrowing. "It still needs time."

"How long?" Leon asked.

"At least another day."

Leon looked toward the entrance. The spirit wolf was already far ahead of them, and if they waited for the tool to recover, there was no guarantee the wolf would still be within its tracking range.

Lyra slowly lowered the device. "We have a choice."

Leon looked at her, waiting.

"We can give up," she paused, looking out at the drifts. "Or we can guess where it's going."

Maya frowned. "Guess?"

"We know the general direction. If we move now, we might be able to get close enough that once the tool recovers, it can pick up the trail again."

Adrian looked toward the storm. "And if we're wrong?"

Lyra gave a small shrug. "Then we've wasted another day."

Leon looked at the fading storm, then at the path they had been following, his eyes narrowing. "I have an idea."

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