The Collapse of Dou Qi

Night gradually settled over Bluestone Village.

The village was small, with only twenty or thirty households scattered across a mountain hollow outside Luo Shen City. By now, every household had put out its lights. Only a dim yellow oil lamp still burned in the dilapidated thatched cottage at the edge of the village.

Xiao Yan sat cross-legged on a wooden plank bed, his eyes half closed. His once delicate features looked somewhat pale, and fine beads of sweat covered his forehead.

A Heng and her grandfather had already gone to sleep in the next room. The cottage was silent, save for the occasional faint crackle from the oil lamp's wick.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath and slowly sank his mind into his body.

His meridians were still in a state of chaos.

His Dou Qi and the unfamiliar energy were like two armies that had fought for three days and nights. Both were somewhat exhausted, yet neither had stopped fighting. Small clashes continued to erupt at the junctions where his meridians met.

First, let's see if I can suppress them.

With that thought, Xiao Yan slowly began to circulate the Flame Mantra.

The Flame Mantra was a cultivation method he had practiced for decades. Starting at Yellow Tier, it had evolved by devouring Heavenly Flames all along the way, and by now had long since become a Di Class cultivation method without equal on the Dou Qi Continent. In the past, no matter what he encountered, once he circulated the Flame Mantra, the Dou Qi in his body would obey his every command, utterly docile.

But this time, the moment he began circulating the Flame Mantra, a sudden change occurred!

The Dou Qi, already entangled with the unfamiliar energy, abruptly turned violent under the Flame Mantra's influence. No longer resisting passively, it began to attack, hurling itself at the unfamiliar energy like an enraged beast.

The unfamiliar energy seemed to sense the provocation and met it with even greater ferocity.

Boom!

Xiao Yan's body jolted. He could clearly hear a muffled explosion within him: a meridian had burst apart under the head-on collision of the two forces!

"Pfft!"

Another mouthful of blood spattered onto the floor in front of the bed. Xiao Yan swayed and nearly toppled forward.

He hurriedly stopped circulating the Flame Mantra, and only then did the violent Dou Qi gradually subside.

Xiao Yan gasped for breath, his face pale to the point of transparency.

"No... the more I suppress them, the fiercer they fight."

Bitterness filled his heart. He had never encountered anything like this. On the Dou Qi Continent, even when facing something as perilous as devouring a Heavenly Flame, he had at least been able to rely on the Flame Mantra. But here, even the Flame Mantra seemed to be pouring oil on the fire.

Xiao Yan closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down. He began to carefully sense the unfamiliar energy.

It was purer than Dou Qi, beyond any doubt. Xiao Yan could feel that even a tiny wisp of the unfamiliar energy contained considerably more power than an equal amount of Dou Qi.

It seemed to be everywhere, permeating all of heaven and earth. It also seemed naturally inclined to "assimilate" the Dou Qi within him, just as the ocean turned every drop of rain that fell into it into seawater.

"Assimilate..."

Xiao Yan's eyes snapped open.

He suddenly understood.

This world was not attacking him. It was... transforming him.

In this world called the Great Thousand World, Dou Qi might itself be an "outsider." Thus, the energy of heaven and earth here would instinctively devour and assimilate it, turning it into something like itself.

Having realized this, Xiao Yan felt not the slightest relief. Instead, his heart grew heavier.

If that were true, then what he faced was not a battle he could endure through sheer will, but a confrontation with all of heaven and earth.

But what if he did not resist?

If he allowed that energy to assimilate his Dou Qi, what would become of him?

Xiao Yan tried relaxing his control over his Dou Qi a little. Then, to his horror, he felt it rapidly growing "bland" under the unfamiliar energy's erosion.

That blandness did not mean a weakening of its power, but a loss of its very essence. The qualities he had imbued his Dou Qi with over decades through the Flame Mantra and by devouring Heavenly Flames-its scorching heat, its overbearing might, its instinct to devour all things-were being erased bit by bit. It was like a basin of clear water being thrown over a brilliantly colored painting: the pigments gradually faded, leaving only a pallid expanse.

Xiao Yan gave a violent start. The Dou Qi within him tightened once more, keeping the erosive force at bay again.

Cold sweat streamed down his forehead.

"If I resist, my meridians will be torn apart. If I submit, the foundation the Flame Mantra built over decades will be washed into a blank sheet of paper..."

Xiao Yan muttered to himself, his voice hoarse.

It was a dead end.

At least, with his current understanding of this world, it was a dead end.

The oil lamp's flame flickered gently in the breeze, casting Xiao Yan's somewhat lonely shadow on the mottled earthen wall.

He was silent for a long time before slowly opening his hand. The four Soul Jades lay quietly in his palm.

Xiao Yan sent his soul power into them one by one, carefully sensing each imprint.

Gu Yuan's imprint was steady and weighty, far away to the northwest. Though somewhat faint, it was extremely stable. Clearly, his old father-in-law had not run into too much trouble.

Zhu Kun's imprint was in the far north, lively and animated, with even a hint of excitement. Xiao Yan could almost imagine that belligerent fellow might be in the thick of a fight with something at that very moment.

The corners of Xiao Yan's mouth could not help but lift slightly.

But when his soul power entered the last two jade tablets, that smile slowly froze.

Xun'er's imprint was in the east, in the far, far east. It was still gentle and bright, but deep within its light, Xiao Yan felt an extremely faint tremor, as though someone were silently enduring some pain.

And Cai Lin's imprint...

It was in the south.

That imprint was the faintest of the four. It flickered between light and dark like a guttering candle in the wind, now and then flashing violently as though struggling, resisting, before quickly dimming again.

At that moment, Xiao Yan's hand slowly clenched.

He knew Cai Lin all too well. That woman was proud to the point of stubbornness. Unless she had run into tremendous trouble, her imprint would never have looked like this.

Yet now, he did not even have the strength to leave the thatched cottage.

Thud.

With a muffled sound, Xiao Yan's fist slammed heavily into the bed plank, leaving a crack in the worn wood.

A Heng's sleepy voice came from the next room. "Brother Xiao... what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Too many mosquitoes," Xiao Yan replied quietly.

The next room soon fell silent again.

Xiao Yan gazed at the flickering lamplight. The frustration and agitation in his eyes faded bit by bit, replaced by an almost cold composure.

At a time like this, he could least afford to lose his composure.

He had faced too many desperate situations in his life: having his engagement broken off, being hunted down, losing his teacher, losing his clan... Each time, he had crawled out of that seemingly hopeless mire, one step at a time.

This time would be no exception.

"Since neither resisting nor submitting will work..."

Xiao Yan slowly closed his eyes and sank his mind into his body once more. This time, he neither circulated the Flame Mantra nor tried to suppress anything. Instead, he quietly and carefully observed every detail of the clash between the two forces.

"Then I'll find a third path."

Outside the window, moonlight flowed like water.

Xiao Yan scarcely slept a wink that night.

Only when the first ray of morning light shone through a hole in the roof did he slowly open his eyes. They were bloodshot, but deep within them was a faint glimmer of light.

After a night of observation, he had not found a real solution, but at least he had discovered something.

The unfamiliar energy did not erode his Dou Qi at random. It always began with the shallowest parts, those closest to the surface. Deep within the Dou Qi, however, lay the origin refined by the Flame Mantra over decades, and the energy had never truly managed to reach it.

Just as the tide could wash over a beach, yet could not wash away a reef.

"If I can hold on to that origin and let the outside energy wash over the rest..."

Xiao Yan muttered to himself as a vague idea surfaced in his mind. But he also knew it was only an idea. If he actually tried it, the danger would likely be beyond imagination. One mistake, and his origin would be dispersed, leaving his cultivation utterly ruined.

He needed to learn more. He needed to know how the people of this world cultivated this kind of energy.

"Brother Xiao, you're up?"

The door curtain lifted, and A Heng came in carrying a steaming bowl of wild vegetable congee. When she saw Xiao Yan's bloodshot eyes, she jumped in fright. "You didn't sleep all night?"

"I couldn't sleep." Xiao Yan smiled, took the bowl and asked as though in passing, "A Heng, what do the people here cultivate?"

"Cultivate?" A Heng was startled. Then she said with some embarrassment, "How would anyone in our village know how to cultivate? Only those important people in the city cultivate Spiritual Energy. I hear the powerful ones can fly through the sky and burrow through the earth, and shatter a mountain with one punch. My grandfather practiced for a couple of days when he was young, too. He said he didn't even reach the threshold of the Sensing Realm, so he stopped."

"Spiritual Energy..." Xiao Yan's heart stirred. So that energy was called Spiritual Energy here.

"Are there places in the city that sell cultivation items?"

"Yes, lots of them." A Heng counted them off on her fingers. "Pill shops, Spirit Artifact shops, and places that sell Spiritual Arts. But they're all frighteningly expensive. You need Supreme Spirit Liquid to buy them. Even if we sold herbs for a whole year, we couldn't get a single drop."

Xiao Yan nodded and slowly finished the wild vegetable congee. He looked out the window, where the outline of Luo Shen City's towering walls loomed faintly on the distant horizon in the morning light.

It seemed he would have to make a trip to the city.