Chương 162: The Pull Back To The Main World

The transition back to the crystalline space was jarring, almost rude, it was like being grabbed by the collar and yanked through reality by someone who hadn't bothered to warn you first. One moment I was communing with the Deep Root Tree beneath Pearl Heart Lake and the next I was floating in the heart-space again surrounded by fragments of dying stars. Han Renyi's sleeping form was drifting nearby, his consciousness still lost in whatever peaceful place Astralis had sent it to recover in.

Speaking of Astralis, he existed a short distance away, the dying stars in his hair twinkling as he watched me separate from Han Renyi's body. The sensation of leaving a host was always strange, like stepping out of something that had become too comfortable and suddenly remembering that you were a soul, and souls were not really meant to be floating around outside their vessels like this.

Han Renyi's soul drifted slowly back toward its proper body once I had vacated it and the fractures I had noticed in its structure before were already healing. Fine lines of golden light threaded themselves together across the damage, and whatever Astralis had done to put him into this healing sleep was working better than expected.

I used the quiet moment to actually process everything that had just happened across all three trees because taken together, it was somewhere between miraculous and alarming depending on which angle you were looking at it from. The Genesis Seed had used the blue sun's energy as a passage to sink its roots into all three world-stabilizing trees while Astralis watched the stabilization effects with delight and didn't notice what was actually happening underneath the surface of it.

It was essentially attempting to annex an entire realm while making direct eye contact with the realm's guardian spirit and chatting cheerfully about how well everything was going. The audacity of it was impressive.

"You're thinking about the annexation attempt," Azure said."'Attempt' feels like too strong a word for what it's doing," I replied internally.

"It feels more like it's preparing."

"It's being very subtle about it," Azure agreed.

"Using the blue sun's energy as cover while it establishes anchor points throughout the realm's fundamental structure. I doubt Astralis has any idea what's actually happening." I was about to ask how long the whole process might realistically take when I felt it, a pull on my soul that was strong enough that it was impossible to ignore, like something had tied a line around my essence and decided to start reeling it in from very far away.

For a moment I thought something had gone wrong with my main body back in the cultivation world.

"Master," Azure said, "the Genesis Seed is pulling you back to the Cultivation World."

"Why now?" I asked, trying to maintain some dignity while being spiritually dragged around like a fish on a line.

"I thought it was occupied with its annexation project."

"That's exactly the reason," Azure explained.

"Annexing a realm is enormously taxing even for the Genesis Seed, and while it can draw on various energy types for the stabilization work, it primarily runs on cultivation world qi, specifically yours, and it needs you back to keep the process fed."

"How long are we talking about for this to complete?" I asked, already having a feeling I wasn't going to enjoy the number.

"At your current cultivation level," Azure said, "centuries. And before you ask, yes, that's accounting for the time dilation of the Two Suns world. I mean centuries in the cultivation world where the Genesis Seed operates at its peak." I couldn't help frowning at that.

"That's not ideal."

"The timeframe will shorten as your cultivation advances and the Genesis Seed itself evolves," Azure added quickly.

"Consider it motivation." A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Can I still travel between worlds while this is happening?" If the answer was no, then my plans around the Outer Sect Tournament were going to need significant rethinking.

"You can still travel," Azure clarified, "you should just do it less frequently unless you're comfortable with significantly slowing down the annexation process." That was a relief. And now that my understanding of life realm energy had actually improved in concrete ways, it made sense to visit the Blue Sun Academy sooner rather than later. Then Azure added something that improved my mood.

"You're also very close to breaking through to the seventh stage of Qi Condensation." Before I could appreciate that properly, Astralis's voice cut in.

"Are you alright? Your soul form looks unstable." I looked down at myself and noticed for the first time that my spiritual essence was wavering.

"I'm fine," I said, though fine was doing some heavy lifting there.

"Just feeling a bit pulled in another direction." His boyish face scrunched up thoughtfully.

"Ah. Your soul is being called back to the main world?"

"That's what it feels like," I said, trying to be casual about the increasingly insistent tugging.

"I don't think I have much longer here."

"That's unfortunate," he said, and the disappointment in his expression looked real.

"We could have done so much more with the trees, really pushed the stabilization forward..."

"Next time I visit," I said.

"Just make sure you have something worth trading when I do." His face lit up.

"Oh, I actually have countless treasures that would be perfect for someone of your…" and then right on schedule, he turned his head slightly and the whisper came out: "But they're all completely useless to a main world cultivator and I'm just trying to get you to come back more often!" I decided to let that one slide.

Han Renyi was starting to stir nearby, his consciousness rising back toward the surface after its rest, his eyes opened and went wide almost immediately as he took in the crystalline space around him and the dying stars drifting through it.

"What... where..." He turned in place which in this space meant he rotated slowly like a small planet finding its axis.

"Master? The last thing I remember there was a boy and then..."

"You needed rest," I said simply.

"How do you feel?" He paused and seemed to be checking himself over internally.

"Better," he said, and the surprise in his voice was genuine.

"Actually a lot better. Like I've slept for a week and eaten a proper meal."

"The heart-space tends to do that," Astralis said pleasantly.

"Though most people flail considerably more when they wake up here." Han Renyi finally registered who else was present in the space and his mouth dropped open as he stared at the stars in Astralis's hair.

"You're actually... you're really..."

"Yes, yes," Astralis said, waving off the incoming awe.

"Divine messenger, celestial envoy, keeper of secrets, all of that, yes. More importantly your friend here needs to leave quite soon, so are you ready to go back to your body?" That cut through the awe.

"Leave? But what happened, what did we do, why were we even…"

"I'll explain everything," I said, "but we should get back before your father decides to organize some kind of search." The mention of his father worked as well as I expected it to.

"Oh no, Father…"

"Will be worried," I finished.

"We'll handle it."

"I can return you to exactly the moment you left!" Astralis offered brightly, raising one hand.

"Nobody will even know you were gone!" I looked at him.

"Really." He turned his head and the whisper came without delay: "Well, actually it's been about twelve hours and everyone is probably in a complete panic, this is going to be so funny to watch!"

"Twelve hours?" Han Renyi's voice went up several notes at once.

"Father will think something terrible has happened, and Qingyi…"

"We'll deal with it," I said, and moved toward his body before the spiral could continue. Merging back in felt different from how it usually felt, his soul was stronger now and more settled, whatever the heart-space had done for the fractures running through it had made a real difference. His consciousness settled in alongside mine with an ease that hadn't been there before.

"Thank you for everything," I said to Astralis, who was watching us with that expression he seemed to default to when he was simultaneously calculating something and finding the whole situation entertaining.

"Of course, you're very welcome!" he said. Then his head turned and: "And thank you for not figuring out that I've been studying how your energy interacts with the trees the entire time to try and work out your secrets!" I smiled.

"Goodbye, Astralis."

"Bye!" He raised his hand and reality started to blur and soften at the edges and just before it completed, I caught one last whisper floating through: "But I will absolutely figure out how you survived that comprehension crystal eventually!" Reality twisted around us and then snapped back into place.

We were standing in the storage room of the Han family textile shop exactly where we had been, the same half-stacked crates from before still sitting there waiting, one of them still balanced at that precarious angle from when we had disappeared mid-motion. The only difference was that where morning light had been coming through the windows before, the glass now showed a sky full of stars.