A Universal Thunderclap, Qi Linked Heaven and Earth

On the seventh day of the night march.

The party camped amid the vast mountain roads.

Ji Ye did not sleep.

He climbed a lone cliff outside the camp alone. It was not tall, but from there, he could see the undulating outline of black mountains to the north—that was the direction of Luoyan Pass.

Cold stars filled the sky, and the wilds were silent.

He sat cross-legged upon the icy rock, the Ageless Sword laid across his knees.

He closed his eyes.

His breathing gradually slowed.

The eight words of the Supreme Induction Chapter slowly circulated through his heart.

[Misfortune and fortune have no gate; people summon them themselves.]

At first, there was nothing.

Only the whimper of the cold wind passing over the cliff face, and the occasional snort of horses from the distant camp.

Ji Ye's consciousness sank into the deepest reaches of his body.

Within him, blood qi accumulated over two years, fused with the fires of a hundred furnaces, and further refined by the washing of heavenly qi at Tianlu Pavilion began to surge slowly at his command.

It traveled through the resilient meridians tempered by the Myriad Forms Furnace Body, sluggish and heavy at first, like hidden currents beneath the earth.

Gradually, it grew faster and faster.

The sound of his rushing blood qi became an unbroken roll of muffled thunder in his ears.

Warmth rose from his dantian and climbed his spine like a great dragon.

It grew hotter and hotter.

Ji Ye's skin began to redden, thin wisps of white vapor rising from the crown of his head and condensing into frosty mist in the cold night.

His entire body resembled an iron statue heated red-hot. Where he touched the icy rock, the snow melted soundlessly, revealing the dark stone beneath.

Utter stillness.

Every thought, every sensation, even that searing heat, was compressed into the final point of his awareness.

That point was his sense of self, along with those eight words—"people summon them themselves."

Summon what?

How did one "summon" it?

There was no answer.

Nor did he need one.

Just as that scorching sensation climbed to its peak—

"Boom!!!"

There was no sound.

Yet Ji Ye "heard" it.

A shocking thunderclap exploded from the deepest depths of his soul, from the very origin of his life.

Soundless thunder.

Yet it cleaved open chaos and severed the shackles.

The blazing torrent within his body abruptly solidified beneath that clap of "thunder."

Like molten iron heated to the extreme, transformed into fine steel in the instant of quenching.

Like vapor rising to its peak, condensing into the first drop of rain amid the clouds.

The heat vanished.

In its place, a cool and gentle "stream" gushed from that formless node in his dantian.

It was not internal force, nor was it blood qi.

It was qi.

Innate qi.

Like a clear spring, like a brook, it was gentle and cool as it slowly traveled upward along his spine.

Bearing the first breath of life, it was born from nothingness and flowed slowly down a path he had never sensed before, yet which seemed to have always existed there by nature.

Wherever it passed, his scorching meridians trembled with joy, like land parched by drought receiving sweet rain.

The tiny hidden wounds left behind by years of martial training and slaughter began to slowly heal and close beneath the nourishment of that cool qi.

Ji Ye kept his eyes closed.

The qi continued to travel.

It flowed through his limbs and bones, seeped into his five viscera and six bowels, even drilling into the deepest marrow of his bones.

His muscle fibers grew denser, his bones shone with a jade-like luster, and his organs resonated in harmony.

Every cell, washed by that cool and gentle qi, burst forth with unprecedented vitality.

It was a leap in the level of life—the first step from a Mortal Shell toward transcendence.

Just then—

The wind moved.

Centered on Ji Ye, the air within thirty meters began to circulate soundlessly.

A light breeze gently circled him, stirring his robes and brushing through his hair.

His robes snapped in the wind and his long hair flew, yet he remained as unmoving as a green pine rooted upon the cliff.

Unmoved by the eight winds.

His inner qi communed with the world beyond.

Ji Ye could feel that the innate qi within him had formed a subtle resonance with the vast, majestic "qi" that filled heaven and earth.

Like a drop of water falling into the sea—tiny, yet born of the same source.

Then—

The Baihui acupoint atop his head gave a faint throb.

It was as though some invisible barrier had quietly been pierced by this moment of communion between within and without.

"Whoosh—"

An incomparably vast, pure, boundless qi descended with a roar from above the nine heavens, from the depths of the starry sky, from all things between heaven and earth!

Like the Milky Way pouring upside down!

Like a waterfall crashing down upon his crown!

"Boom!!!"

This time, there was sound.

It was the thunderous roar produced inside Ji Ye's skull as heaven-and-earth qi poured into his Baihui acupoint.

Like a raging river, it surged downward from the Baihui acupoint, washing over his brow, flowing past his throat, soaking his organs, and coursing through every limb and bone.

Pure.

Vast.

Yet brimming with the vigorous vitality of heaven and earth at the dawn of creation.

Ji Ye was instantly swallowed by that torrent of qi.

Every cell within him cheered.

His body was glowing.

Not with light visible to the naked eye, but with the ultimate manifestation of "presence."

Upon that lonely cliff beneath a sky full of cold stars, he seemed to peel away from the background and become the only real existence between heaven and earth.

He did not know how long it passed.

The roaring sound of that divine infusion faded away.

The cool sensation of his body being cleansed also became indistinct.

In its place came an unprecedented lightness.

Too light.

Light as though he had cast off shackles carried through three lifetimes, light as though he had sprouted wings and ascended to immortality.

Though his eyes remained closed, he seemed to see the lone cliff beneath his feet shrink, becoming an insignificant pebble upon the earth.

He saw the distant mountains crouching like gigantic dragons, their rolling ridgelines gradually merging with the rhythm of his own spine.

The mountains were his bones; the rivers were his blood.

An unprecedented grandeur and tranquility washed over him like a tide.

That "self" was becoming transparent bit by bit beneath the washing of that vast heaven-and-earth qi.

Even the name "Ji Ye" was growing blurred.

Those blood-soaked images from his memories—the fire in Black Stone County, the mud of the mass graveyard, Little Mute's cries, the blood on Qin Wuji's face, the wine in Xiao Hongxiu's hand... began to ripple like reflections in water, gradually dispersing.

Whose story was that?

It no longer seemed important.

Why hate? Why struggle? Why grip a sword so painfully hard?

Heaven and earth were so vast, so quiet, so embracing.

As long as he let go, as long as he closed his eyes, he could melt forever into this vast starry sky.

Like a water droplet that had traveled ten thousand miles, finally merging into the sea.

It no longer needed to maintain its own shape, no longer needed to resist the rocks blocking its path. It only needed to scatter and become one with that boundless blue.

There was no pain, no obsession, no torment of reincarnation.

Only eternal tranquility.

The feeling was too wondrous, more lethal than any power or beauty in the world by ten thousandfold.

He wanted to sleep like this.

To become a wisp of wind among these mountains, blowing on forever—without sorrow or joy, without birth or death.

The corners of Ji Ye's lips involuntarily curled into a serene, peaceful, yet utterly hollow smile.

His aura began to disperse. It no longer gathered into form, but spread outward toward the surrounding mountains, rivers, grass, and trees.

This was true unity between man and heaven.

To sacrifice the self to the Dao; the Dao was the self.

"Hum—"

The Ageless Sword resting across his knees suddenly trembled.

It was an extremely soft, fine cry, yet sharp enough to pierce the soul.

It was the ferocity of "Ageless."

It was the unwillingness to "seize the day."

That ferocity was like a red-hot needle, viciously stabbing into Ji Ye's consciousness as it was about to disperse.

Agony.

Ji Ye jolted awake.

I cannot become the wind.

The wind cannot bleed. The wind cannot rage. The wind... cannot kill!

I am Ji Ye.

I am Ji Ye, the one who will overturn this chessboard!

I want to win!

I will slaughter my way through this world. I will smash every one of those lofty idols to pieces!

When one thought arose, ten thousand thoughts followed.

This was selfish desire.

This was the obsession that made humans human.

The instant that "selfish desire" arose—

"Boom!"

The heaven-and-earth qi pouring down from above like a waterfall abruptly cut off.

Like a gate leading to the Heavenly Court slamming shut before him.

That mystical connection of breathing with heaven and earth, sharing their fate, instantly collapsed.

The cold swept over him once more.

The heaviness of his body returned.

Wind was still wind, rock was still rock, and stars were still stars.

And he was still that mortal seated on the cliff's edge, burdened by a debt of blood.

The bridge between heaven and earth had broken.

Mortals possessed selfishness; the Heavenly Dao possessed none.

Once selfish desire existed, one could no longer contain this vast heaven and earth.

Ji Ye gasped for breath.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through his heavy clothes.

The sensation of weightlessness from falling out of the clouds into a mud pit left him dizzy, even making him retch.

Yet he laughed.

His smile was somewhat savage, somewhat lingering with fear.

"Close one..."

He lowered his head and looked at his hands. The lines in his palms were clear, and his flesh was warm.

Had the ferocity of the Ageless Sword not startled him awake in that instant, he would likely have become a stone atop this lonely cliff—without breath, without a heartbeat.

This was the truth of the grandmaster's path.

Countless breathtaking geniuses believed the realm of grandmaster to be "unity between man and heaven," borrowing the power of heaven and earth for themselves.

Thus, they opened their bodies and minds, attempting to contain this vast heaven and earth.

And what happened?

A drop of water entered the sea, and the drop vanished.

A person entered heaven and earth, and the person vanished.

Heaven and earth were selfless, emotionless, desireless.

Yet people had selfishness, emotions, desires.

Trying to use a selfish heart to align with the selfless Heavenly Dao was no different from an ant trying to shake a tree, a moth hurling itself into flame.

Either one went mad, consciousness crushed beneath the chaotic torrent of information from heaven and earth; or one died, the body assimilated by the vast vital forces of heaven and earth.

"No wonder that old eunuch from Tianlu Pavilion said that understanding it was a blessing, while failing to understand it was a calamity."

Ji Ye slowly clenched his fist.

As the vital forces of heaven and earth were cut off, the cool, gentle strand of innate qi within his body receded like the tide, seeking to return to heaven and earth through the eighty-four thousand pores across his body.

It had been borrowed. In the end, it had to be returned.

"Returned?"

Ji Ye's gaze suddenly turned icy and sharp as iron.

"Once it enters my body, it is mine."

"You want to leave?"

"Did you ask me?"

The Myriad Forms Furnace Body roared into motion.

Ji Ye abruptly sealed every pore across his body, like closing off a volcano on the verge of eruption.

He mobilized all his essence, qi, and spirit, the killing intent in his heart, and the deathly aura upon the Ageless Sword, forging them into an invisible furnace that trapped the strand of innate qi about to escape firmly within his dantian!

Since he could not follow the Heavenly Dao.

Then he would plunder the Heavenly Dao!

"Refine... for me!!"

Ji Ye roared inwardly.

That strand of pure, flawless innate qi, untouched by the dust of the world, crashed wildly about within his dantian like a trapped young dragon, trying to break free from the restraints of this Mortal Shell.

It was proud, cold, disdainful of coexisting with mortal flesh and blood.

But Ji Ye was even more ruthless.

He used his killing intent to taint it, his obsession to erode it, and his blood to nourish it.

You wanted purity? Then I would stain you with color!

You wanted selflessness? Then I would carve selfishness into you!

Even as the collision shattered his meridians inch by inch, even as his dantian hurt as though it were about to explode.

Ji Ye did not retreat a single step.

At last.

That strand of innate qi stopped struggling.

It was thoroughly steeped in Ji Ye's will, changing from its original clear, translucent form into a deep blue-gray tinged with dark crimson blood.

It no longer belonged to heaven and earth.

It belonged only to Ji Ye.

"Phew—"

Ji Ye let out a long breath of foul air.

This breath was no longer a white stream. Carrying a faint trace of bloodstink, it sprayed onto the rock before him and produced a sizzling corrosive sound, leaving a shallow pit in the stone.

Internal Strength transformed into True Qi.

Though there was only a thread of it, though it was impure and mixed.

This was the mark of nearing the Grandmaster realm—True Qi.

Ji Ye rose to his feet.

His clothes had been drenched in cold sweat, then frozen stiff by the frigid wind, clinging to him like a layer of iron hide.

Yet he had never felt better.

The darkness before his eyes seemed to have been washed clean.

A hundred paces away, a cold crow shook snow from its wings. The paths traced by those swirling flakes in the wind were as clear as silver threads.

Beneath his feet, grass roots buried deep in the frozen earth breathed faintly. Those wisps of barely perceptible warmth shone as brightly as candle flames in his senses.

Wind was no longer wind, but flowing qi.

Mountains were no longer mountains, but solidified form.

The world had shed its skin and revealed its truest skeleton to him.

He drew the Ageless Sword.

The blade was still broken, its cracks still savage.

But when Ji Ye poured the strand of freshly refined "blood-colored True Qi" from his dantian into the blade.

The Ageless Sword did not keen.

It lit up.

A bewitching red glow shone from deep within those densely packed cracks, like magma flowing beneath a dried riverbed.

Ji Ye casually swung it.

There was no force behind it, no technique.

Only the sword edge cutting through the night sky.

Thirty feet away.

A protruding boulder half a man's height silently slid down.

Its cut was smooth as a mirror, covered in a faint layer of red frost.

Sword qi released beyond the blade.

Killing from afar.

The night wind was like a blade as it scraped across Ji Ye's cheeks, yet it could no longer steal even a trace of his body heat.

He sheathed his sword and leaped from the lone cliff.

There was no foothold, no slowing down.

Like a black eagle, he lightly tapped the sheer cliff face several times and crossed a height of a hundred zhang, landing soundlessly at the edge of the camp.

When he landed, the snow beneath his feet did not even scatter; it merely sank a fraction.

Lifting heavy things as lightly as feathers, treading snow without leaving a trace.

That was the degree of control over his body granted by that breath of True Qi.

"Who goes there?!"

Wang Meng yanked out his saber, every muscle in his body tensing.

Only after seeing that it was Ji Ye did he let out a breath and return the saber to its sheath, though a trace of alarmed doubt now appeared in his eyes.

It had only been a few hours, yet Sir seemed to have... changed.

The former Ji Ye had been like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath, his edge fully exposed and impossible to look upon directly.

But now, Ji Ye stood there like a pool of bottomless black water.

One could not sense his sharpness, or even his aura, yet merely standing there made the air around him thick and oppressive.

Wang Meng had felt that sensation only once before—from the North Guard Army's great general, whom he had glimpsed from afar years ago.

"Sir, you..." Wang Meng ventured.

"I figured some things out."

Ji Ye did not explain further. As he headed toward the central command tent, he asked, "Have the scouts returned?"

"They have."

Wang Meng's expression hardened as he hurried after him. "Three thousand Barbarian wolf cavalry make up their vanguard, led by Hulei's adopted son, Chi Lang. They are thirty li from Luoyan Pass. At their speed, they will arrive by noon tomorrow."

"Three thousand wolf cavalry..."

Ji Ye's steps paused slightly, and a cold smile tugged at his lips.

"Hulei has learned to be clever. He is sending a dog ahead to sniff out the path."

"Sir, how should we fight?" Wang Meng asked deeply. "The walls of Luoyan Pass have long fallen into disrepair. We have only eight hundred men. If we defend it head-on, I fear we will not last two days."

"Defend?"

Ji Ye lifted the tent flap and strode to the old sheepskin map.

The candlelight flickered, reflecting off his face, calm to an almost excessive degree.

"Who said we were going to defend Luoyan Pass?"

He stretched out a hand, his finger drawing a line across the map. It passed beyond the ruined pass at Luoyan Pass and stopped at a long, narrow gorge.

"Hui Feng Valley."