The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

I wanted to curse, as I watched Li rise back up on his feet, miasma swirling around him even more strongly than before.

“Yan Yun, run away from here,” I said. The girl nodded, quickly moving. I focused on the boy instead.

“You really went and sold your soul huh?” I said.

Li cracked his neck in response, licking his lips in excitement as his demonic eyes focused on me. “I hadn’t died before. It’s quite the thrilling sensation you know?” he replied, stretching his limbs. We stared at each other for a moment, my guard raised and Chi thrumming. This battle wasn’t going to end so easily. With a kick, Li rushed closer, dark-purple lightning crackling as he struck. I blocked the strike, being pushed backwards as I winced. He’d grown stronger somehow. Using my Chi to raise my defenses, I struck back with my own attacks, fist striking hard.

My Chi collided with Li’s Gu as the battle sent sparks flying in the air. I moved to nearly the limits of my ability and found Li matching me in both strength and speed. The boy’s grin continued to widen, the manic monstrosity in his eyes only growing as the battle continued. A dance of combat ensued, strikes after strikes meeting and shaking the air with power as we both probed each other for weaknesses.

He was clearly enjoying this, the intensity of Li’s movements growing. He slashed with his claws, trying to get in closer to crush my throat. I struck back with my fist, the punch flinging him backwards as he pushed his feet into the ground to stop himself. I rushed in closer, not giving him time to recover as I struck with my attack, gaining the upper hand in the exchange and forcing him to be on the defensive.

Li let lightning loose, dark purple bolts crackling all around his body in a burst, forcing me back, the world shivered around him, revolted at the miasma he was emitting as the Qi in the air began to burn. He was weak here, weaker than he would normally be… and still, he was matching me.

“Is this all? This is it? No, no I know you can do more. Where’s the beast you keep hidden, bring it out. Or will it take me breaking you a little before you do?” Li asked, tilting his head as if genuinely curious, with an almost childlike innocent expression. It made my skin crawl.

I didn’t know how to kill him. I’d seen the deathless in my dreams, in the dreams I got from Ash, but that didn’t tell me how to kill them. There had to be a way, some trick to their power or strength. But I didn’t know what that was. Though I did know one thing. If I killed Li, it would take him some time to regenerate. I could use that.

“Alright, if you’re so insistent,” I said, as I took in a breath, before channeling Harmony again. I didn’t draw fully on Xuanwu, not just yet. First, I drew on the tree’s power. The actual power that it contained, the ties to the people I had met, the people who had adopted my path. Their numbers had only grown, and the power from the land around and under me flowed into my body, bolstering my strength. I felt Lei’s soul shiver inside of me somewhere, lending me his powers as well. For a moment, I could hear a voice whisper in my ears if I focused enough.

“Please… free my brother.”

I opened my eyes, power rising inside of me.

“I will,” I replied to Lei. Though I may no longer be able to save Li, I could free his soul at the very least. Free him of the demon it had become. I moved, not holding anything back as I struck at Li.

The world shivered as Li blocked my strike, grinning back at me with a feral excitement as his body began to morph even further from the miasma. I continued my assault, gathering Chi around my body. Flames manifested in my hand, as I blasted them out towards Li, I spun around, a beam of water rushing outwards as it slashed at the boy before I let the fire burst it into a cloud of steam, blinding his vision. I let my hand touch the earth, the ground shaking around him as I raised the earth, boulders rising with sharp edges, threatening to pierce his body.

Li moved, kicking the boulder and shattering them as he weaved through my attacks, before lunging at me. I moved closer, our fists meeting mid air as the blast sent us both flying backwards. I felt my fingers ache, blood dripping down them, and yet the boy grinned.

I hated fighting, hated having to do all that I needed to do, and yet, somehow this was the only option available to me. And so I leaned into it, into the mindset of a warrior, into the battles I had fought countless times before in my life, and let them all find… Harmony.

I opened my eyes, watching a new world around me. One with different potentials, and with a different me. I took a stance, shifted my body weight, there was a calm in my mind that hadn’t been there. I was complete now, I was one and truly one, all parts of me were of myself, there were no different aspects left, only a single soul, only I. And it was that certainty which allowed me to finally form my own martial path. Pieces of the many combat techniques I had learned, the misty arts and the battles I’d fought, they all formed Harmony within me. I hadn’t known I could do this, that I could change myself. No… not change. To embrace myself, to become one with an aspect I had always ran away from.

Zhou Fang’s words came to my mind. Knowledge was power too. But it was not the only kind of power. I let my Chi move around me, gathering into my feet and arms, focused to a pinpoint. I didn’t have a name for this, but I didn’t need one either. This was just my kind of fighting, my kind of battle.

And so I struck. I rushed ahead, the world blurring around me as I shot forward towards the demon. Lightning burst all around me, leaving charred remains on the ground, the world crackled and thundered as Li rushed forward, burning the world with his power and leaving death in his wake with each step as the two of us met.

I let my art manifest, my Chi bursting outwards as my fist descended onto Li. Dark-purple lightning rushed around the world, meeting the brilliant white blast from my hand as the two collided.

An explosion shook the ground, as I was blasted backwards, I felt harmony fade, my body aching, and my arm fractured as I tumbled across, before being stopped by a tree. I groaned, coughing out blood before I pulled myself to my feet. I watched the dust cloud settle as I saw Li, his upper body separated from his lower body as dark blood seeped out into the world.

I limped closer, feeling my battered body aching in protest. I drew upon the tree, drew what little Chi I had left in me as my bones cracked back into place, muscles and wounds healing rapidly. I was spent, but I was alive. I looked down at Li, who looked up at me, eyes distant as the miasma worked to recreate him. I looked at him, and then let fire spread from my hands onto him.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

The demon shrieked as the flames engulfed him, burning him alive, not even death would give him mercy. He’d abandoned that right. I turned away, stepping aside as I didn’t want to watch Li burn alive till he turned to ash, but then I heard something. He wasn’t screaming. He was laughing.

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“AHHAHAHAHAHAAHA— IT BURNS! IT BURNS!!” Li shrieked, like a mad man. Miasma swirled around him as the flames continued to burn rapidly. I rushed in closer to completely destroy his body but a burst of miasma pushed me back, swirling around Lei. The screams and laughters continued as his body morphed, twisting and changing shapes as he rose back up on his feet. His skin was burnt and peeled, flames still covering him as he continued to laugh maniacally, his body changed, the last inklings of humanity leaving him. Two horns jutted from his head, his face contorted into a monstrous look as a grin divided the monotone skin color.

But it wasn’t any of that, which worried me the most. It was the presence I felt from him. Whatever had happened, he’d just grown to a level beyond mine. The miasma gathered around Li, before seeping into the world itself as a domain spread all around me, plunging the world into darkness. The flames crackled from all around Li, before dying as they revealed the demon inside. He crackled with lightning, silver hair swinging behind his back as he looked at me with a smile.

“I have to thank you. It can take years for a demon to fully mature… but you pushed me just enough, in just the right ways. And now… now I finally get it,” Li said.

Before I could even react he moved right in front of me, kicking me in the stomach as I flew across the area. Before I even hit the ground, he reappeared above me, slamming me into the earth. Lightning crackled in the sky, a storm brewing in the clouds and thunder struck down, causing flames to rise all around as forests burned and death spread all over.

“I am finally free,” he said, smiling happily, as he clutched my throat.

I closed my eyes, reaching into my spirit and drew on Xuanwu’s power. Harmony converted the divine beast’s strength into mine, as the two of us became one for a moment. I opened my eyes, power now surging all around me as I struck back against Li. Power surged, an infinite crackle as I flew in the skies, looking down upon this domain. I rushed closer towards Li, my strike cracking the space of the domain itself as it sent the demon flying, I moved closer, moving mindlessly now as I simply forged ahead with one task.

I had a few seconds to finish this. A few seconds where I could hold Xuanwu’s power, before I lost it again.

“There it is! The beast, it comes out. Greetings!” Li shouted, and I roared in anger. I saw from Xuanwu’s perspective, saw the twisted death in him, saw my failure, as anger surged within me.

“You are twisted. An abomination. We will erase you,”I roared, before rushing in closer. Water rose at my command, rushing out in a tidal wave as I manifested the terrible winters of the north, the entire world sinking into a plunging tundra. I moved, breaking space in front of me as I appeared in front of the demon, my strike sent a good part of his arm and chest flying, ripping him apart.

“GOOD! VERY GOOD!” Li screamed, laughing as I kicked him around, pushing him further. I let my own aura expand as I reached out to the domain and began to break it, cracks appeared in the very space around me, reality shuddering under my effect, and with a powerful crack, the domain shattered, spitting us both out back into the garden. Li rose, flesh twisted and forging rapidly as his body mended itself, I moved closer, grabbing his face, as the three laws in my soul surged.

“We will end your core. End the very base of your power. Your immortality is false, and we will reclaim it today,” I said, as I began to drain Li’s cultivation, reaching into his spirit. Gu began to flow into me, his cultivation breaking and flowing into my body and empowering me. Yet, instead of terror, instead of fear, I saw excitement.

The demon simply looked at my eyes, gleeful as he laughed, even as I destroyed his very core. It took me too long to notice the floating piece of his body that he’d separated before when I had struck him.

A powerful bolt of lightning struck me from the arm, pincering my chest as I gasped in pain. I felt my Harmony break, as Xuanwu’s power left my body, and I toppled over, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Li cackled in joy, cultivation fractured and weakened but still present, as he reattached his cut off arm to his body. I tried to push myself up but the demon kicked me in the side, sending me flying.

“Oh how the mighty fall,” Li said, as I coughed. This time my ribs did break, and I winced under the pain. The world spun above me, and for a moment, I felt like I was back. Back in that moment when I had awakened the other half of my memories.

“You’re weak, pathetic. You have no strength of your own. Don’t you understand? Friends, family, people, they drag you down, stop you from reaching your true potential,” Li said, looking down at me, before spreading his arms out. “But now I am free! Free from ties, free from life and death. Free from everything!”

His eyes moved down towards me. “And now I’ll be free of you.”

I looked up at Li, gasping, struggling to breathe, before rasping. “You're right. I’m… weak. I've never been good at fighting. And… I have too much to protect.”

For a moment, I saw surprise in Li’s expression, before he smiled once more.

“Good. You understand, you finally understand your place. Now die, like the miserable worm you are,” Li said, as miasma began to crackling around him.

“But… you see… I’m really good at something else…” I rasped. The crackling lightning bolt continued to gather, ready to strike me and end my life.

I reached out to my waist, to the pocket, and I pulled open the box there.

“Here, a gift from me,” I said, tossing the bomb towards Li before I sent a pulse of my Chi, breaking the seal open and activating it. The device hummed, spinning rapidly.

I kicked, rolling sideways before using Stepping to move as far away as possible to try to avoid the worst of the impact.

“Your tricks won’t wo—“

The world exploded.

The entire garden around me was caught in the explosion, Qi and Gu swirling and humming before detonating the very air around them. I felt myself get caught in the blast, flung by the impact of the weapon, the shock wave traveled outwards from the weapon, the ground tearing underneath me as a large chunk of the earth was raised into the sky before it began to rain down like hellfire.

It burned. Everything burned. My body caught flames like a piece of dry firewood being chucked into a nuclear explosion. My skin was charred and I was tossed around like rubble, crashing into a chunk of the wall that had mostly been obliterated and destroyed by the impact.

It was thanks to the fact that I had forged my body with the immortal twin technique that I was even alive right now, but that too, was only barely. I felt the world spinning, my ears ringing sharply. I didn’t know how much time had passed.

I slowly pushed myself up to see a giant crater where Li had been. Slowly pushing myself to stand, I stumbled closer, falling at the edge of the crater before rolling down all the way to its center.

No trace of Li remained. I looked at the sky, and saw the barrier outside had been broken by the shock wave, fiery meteor-like pieces of earth and dust still raining down and covering the entire palace.

Slowly, with a lot of pain and grunting, I flipped myself over and reached out to my surroundings. With a gentle tug, I felt the remnants of a soul float out from the charred ashes, and I pulled them into myself, reuniting the two brothers.

My body shook as I fell over once more, no longer having any energy to keep myself moving.

There. I fulfilled your request.

I thought to myself, and felt Lei’s soul shiver in gratitude, before it moved away, sinking into the tree inside my spirit and becoming one with the cycle of rebirth.

I looked at the sky, as the dust slowly began to settle, and the barrier blocking the sky vanished.

“Those… are some pretty stars,” I whispered to myself, and then passed out.