Chivalry in the Here and Now

Mountains, night.

Yunqi raced through the forest, guided by a powerful White Dragon-the father of the puppy in Donghuo's household, whom Yunqi had borrowed for the task.

Dog and man traveled one behind the other at tremendous speed, without making a sound.

Suddenly, White Dragon stopped and stared ahead.

Yunqi followed White Dragon's gaze.

There stood an enormous, strange tree, some two or three hundred feet tall. Its broad, dark green leaves were shaped like human palms. Rustling in the night breeze, they made such a racket that it sounded as though a crowd were perched in the branches, clapping.

On closer inspection, there really did seem to be people in the tree!

Corpses hung from its branches!

At the sight, Yunqi's face remained expressionless, his eyes filled with baleful intent. From a quarter mile away, he pointed his left hand straight at the demonic tree and spat out an incantation:

"Burning Annihilation!"

Boom-

The demonic tree suddenly burst into flames.

Awooo-

As fire descended from the heavens, the demonic tree actually let out a piercing, mournful howl.

The enormous tree spewed black smoke one moment and shed green rain the next, but nothing could extinguish the spellfire, laden with the profound essence of destruction.

The flames illuminated miles around and burned for nearly an hour before the enormous tree finally turned to ash, and those corpses at last found release.

[Burning Annihilation] was a spell he had newly comprehended.

During his time in the Miao Stockade, his understanding of fire's magical essence had grown deeper and more complex.

When he had used the [Burn] incantation before, it had chiefly manifested magical essences such as [Combustion], [Blazing Intensity], [Extreme Heat], and [Light].

But over these past few days in the Miao Stockade, he had watched its people use fire. Besides driving away evil spirits and sinister entities, fire also dispelled the cold in their bodies, along with the fear and loneliness in their hearts. Fire could burn away intangible things as well.

After pondering this for several days, he concluded that he could divide the [Burn] incantation into the [Burning Annihilation] spell and the [Burning Purification] spell.

[Burning Annihilation] was a spell of slaughter and destruction, using flames to eradicate all sinister spirits and evil entities. Its intent lay in [Annihilation], and it governed death; [Burning Purification] was a spell of protection and blessing, using flames to dispel pain, stubborn illnesses, fear, darkness, distracting thoughts, and the like. Its intent lay in [Purification], and it governed life.

[Annihilation] and [Purification] were the ends; [Burn] was the means.

Only when he eventually needed nothing but [Annihilation] and [Purification] would these spells truly be complete.

Although the [Burning Annihilation] spell he now cast had evolved from the [Burn] incantation, its essence of fiery destruction and utter eradication was far stronger. It had already surpassed ordinary fire and could rightly be called spellfire.

And the reason he was here now was to use the [Burning Annihilation] spell to sweep away the evil demons around the Eighteen Hongjiang Stockades.

He knew that powerful demons and savage ghosts might lurk around the Eighteen Hongjiang Stockades, beings he could not afford to provoke. He also knew that some of the lesser demons he burned away might spring up again within three to five years, nurtured anew by the mountains.

Indeed, White Dragon, who guided him, was the only one who knew of everything he was doing now.

But he did not care. Since he had seen them, and since he had the ability, he sought only one thing: to practice chivalry in the here and now, with nothing weighing on his conscience.

The evil entity was destroyed, and the flames slowly faded. After waiting patiently for a while and seeing no other evil entities approach, Yunqi gave a signal. White Dragon instantly darted out and began digging for something in the heap of ash.

Meanwhile, Yunqi formed a hand seal, holding it ready without releasing it, alert to anything that might approach.

Nothing happened, however, and soon White Dragon returned with something in his mouth.

Yunqi reached out and took it. It looked like a seed. He put it into the Cave Stone, then had White Dragon lead him to the next sinister place.

Several more days passed. On the seventeenth day of the ninth month, in Chestnut Creek Stockade, outside his own home.

Yunqi sat cross-legged in meditation.

The Celestial Circuit Hundred-Aperture Inner Landscape Scripture stated: "The Twelve-Storied Tower is the gateway between heaven and man, the pivot of qi circulation, and may serve as a temporary palace for the deities."

This meant that the Twelve-Storied Tower was the gateway connecting the body's little world to the great world of nature, the nexus through which spiritual qi flowed. It could serve as temporary lodging for other Inner Landscape Deities.

Another way the Twelve-Storied Tower differed from other apertures was that it could be opened one story at a time. Thus, opening a single story of the Twelve-Storied Tower was vastly different in difficulty from opening another major aperture.

In other words, although Yunqi's Heart Mansion remained unopened, he could first open one story of the Twelve-Storied Tower and visualize the Heart Mansion's Inner Landscape Deity there. This would let him both absorb qi through visualization and nurture the Inner Landscape Deity ahead of time. Once he had accumulated enough magical power, the Inner Landscape Deity temporarily residing in the Twelve-Storied Tower could wield that power to push open the Heart Mansion's gates, take its seat within, and oversee the circulation of essence and blood.

Yunqi had been absorbing qi for over a year. The first story of the Twelve-Storied Tower had long since loosened, so opening it would not be difficult.

Originally, he had intended to put off opening the Twelve-Storied Tower.

He had thought he would only find an opportunity to comprehend the divine essence of the Hairy Head Sun Rooster and establish the core of his Inner Landscape Deity when he visited the Golden Chicken Clan on Heavenly Cry Mountain in the Southern Wastes. He had never expected such great progress in this tiny Miao Stockade. Once again, the saying held true:

Affairs had no fixed course, just as water had no fixed shape.

He intended to open the first story of the Twelve-Storied Tower today, right here in the Miao Stockade.

The method would be the simplest and quickest: ingestion. He would draw on outside resources and use a vast surge of spiritual power to force the aperture open.

This method was workable for opening the first story of the Twelve-Storied Tower, but if he wanted to force open the Heart Mansion, there was no telling what sort of fortune he would need to afford it.

Of course, this shortcut had its drawbacks. It skipped the process of comprehending magical essence and refining magical power, which was why some cultivators who rose to high ranks by swallowing pills were prone to encountering bottlenecks.

That problem did not apply to Yunqi. It was merely a matter of weighing importance and urgency, and adapting flexibly.

He swept his sleeve. A few glimmers flashed from the Cave Stone in his hand, and several assorted objects appeared before him.

There were seeds, chalcedony, herb fruits, metal essence, and a few things he could not identify.

He had obtained all of these while sweeping away sinister entities.

Although none of these things was particularly high-grade, taken together, the odds and ends should be enough to force open one story.

The cloud aperture leaned toward yin and belonged to water among the five elements. To be cautious, he selected some water-aligned spiritual materials, then used spellfire to remove the dross and preserve the essence, refining them into a concentrated spiritual liquid.

Yunqi split his attention between two tasks, controlling his body as it swallowed the spiritual liquid while watching the little world of his inner landscape, his gaze fixed on the Twelve-Storied Tower.

With the richly fragrant spiritual liquid in his mouth, Yunqi tilted his head back slightly. The liquid slowly flowed into his throat, but he simultaneously sealed his throat shut, preventing it from entering his esophagus.

Suppressing the urge to cough, Yunqi used his mental power to dissolve the spiritual liquid into a mass of tremendous spiritual qi, then guided it to pour into the Twelve-Storied Tower.

Viewed from within the little world of his inner landscape, the Twelve-Storied Tower resembled a mountain-shaped mass of yellow mist. What lay inside that yellow mist? He could not make it out.

Just then, a surging wind suddenly swept into the inner landscape world and charged straight at the summit of the mountain-shaped yellow mist. The mist at the top swayed in the wind, gradually struggling to hold its shape. Slowly, the wind lifted it away, about to reveal what lay within.

Looking at the corner that had emerged, Yunqi thought, No wonder it's called the Twelve-Storied Tower. Doesn't that section, like a hollow piece of yellow jade, look just like a single story?

The Twelve-Storied Tower resembled a palace of jade concealed in mountain mist. Only its rooftop was now fully revealed, glowing with a hazy radiance.

Here is the second chapter. Please vote and recommend the story, and feel free to leave comments and messages!