Chương 51: Chapter 50: TO BREAK THROUGH

It was the fifth day. The fifth day since their fight with the serpent, the fifth day since they'd ended up separated from Meiyao. The fifth day stuck in this pocket with the corpse of the massive snake at fault for this whole situation. Daojue opened his violet eyes, and looked at him neutrally. They were sitting across each other. The raw, skinned corpse of the snake lay behind them, and a new makeshift rope sat between them.

It'd already been a day since they'd finished working on the scales. Now they had more daggers, throwing blades, caltrops, and what Jieyuan had come to call shard powder (clumps of little scale splinters that they could throw at others) than he knew what to do with. If he was right, though, these new tools probably wouldn't be anywhere near enough. Not in the long run. Because without Meiyao, it wouldn't take them long to run into trouble.

And trouble would be finding them again and again and again for the foreseeable future. Jieyuan pursed his lips. He didn't let himself dwell on why Meiyao hadn't found them yet. That'd do him no good. Rather, he thought about the future. Their next move, at least, was obvious enough. Two days ago, a beast had peeked inside the pocket. A small one. It'd flickered very briefly on Jieyuan's soulsenses, and he'd just caught a glimpse of a small, stumpy, furred figure before it'd disappeared.

Yesterday there had been a few more sightings, most of them brief things. But there'd been this tenth-step Redrealm bear that had stared at them for over an hour from just over the edge of the pocket before drawing back.

"We need to leave," Jieyuan decided.

"It doesn't look like we'll be safe here much longer." Really, it was a surprise they'd managed to stay there so long without a fight. He reckoned that the corpse of the snake might have had something to do with it. Maybe the other beasts could sense it and were keeping away as a result. He'd have been thankful for that, except the snake was the very cause behind this entire rotting mess. The prodding beasts were only part of the picture, though; they'd have had to leave even if it'd been safe to stay.

Staying put didn't sit well with him. They had no guarantee that if they set off they would actually be heading toward the center of the Dome, what with how the mist worked, but the alternative was spending the rest of their lives in that one spot. Which was no alternative at all. They'd just have to assume that the mist would still take them toward the center of the Dome even though Meiyao wasn't around anymore.

When Meiyao had told them that regardless of what direction they took when crossing a pocket the mist would ensure they were headed centerward, she hadn't clarified whether that was happening because of her presence or if the mist did that to every outsider; that hadn't mattered at the time because they hadn't had any intention of separating. Now he'd just have to hope that was still the case and that they'd reunite with Meiyao at the center. No doubt she'd have had the same idea if she couldn't find them.

Yes, Jieyuan decided, taking a deep breath, firming his will. We'll meet at the center. And that's that. Daojue still said nothing. Little surprise there; Jieyuan could've counted on one hand the number of times Daojue had spoken these last few days.

"There's something I want to do before, though," Jieyuan said.

"I'm ready for my breakthrough to fifth-step. Can you keep watch?" For these past few days, if he wasn't carving scales, he was cultivating, imbuing chroma into his soul. Even before his encounter with the snake, he had been close to his next breakthrough. The chroma saturating the shell of his soul was on the verge of fifth-density. All that was left to break through to fifth-step was to stabilize it.

The next time he tried imbuing, the unstable chroma in his soul would reach exactly prismful, and that'd set off the stabilization reaction. The soul-flare. That level of pain would put him out of commission for at least a little while. With their rotten luck, chances were that was when the beasts would stop playing shy and go for the kill. Wordlessly, Daojue stood up, Gleaming End in hand, and took position. Jieyuan stared at his friend.

And it occurred to him, in that moment, that for all of Daojue's apparent apathy, he actually played nice for the most part. Besides a few issues they'd had in the Gleamstone Valley, where Daojue wouldn't follow instructions, Daojue had been nothing short of cooperative. And Jieyuan couldn't help but think of the multiple times that Daojue had gone out of his way to quite literally drag him out of trouble.

He didn't need to think back far; Daojue was the one who'd thrown himself at him when the white snake had taken Jieyuan by surprise the first time it went underground. That was how they'd ended up separated from Meiyao. Daojue hadn't needed to save him; the smart thing would've been to stick by Meiyao's side, even. The realization struck Jieyuan abruptly, and before he knew it, he was asking, the words slipping out of his mouth, "Why did you help me?

Why do you keep helping me—" Catching himself, Jieyuan shut his mouth before could dig himself a deeper hole. His old man would've certainly taken him to task over this. You didn't question good things. Then again, knowing Daojue, he'll probably just ignore— Daojue turned to face Jieyuan, pinning him with his violet eyes. Jieyuan froze; this wasn't Daojue's usual stare. It was different, more intense. Several moments passed before Daojue said, "I had a younger brother. You remind me of him."

Jieyuan tried to keep his surprise from showing, but he doubted he did that good of a job. He was very surprised right now. Daojue had never uttered a single word about his past up to this point; Jieyuan didn't know the first thing about what Daojue's life before he'd joined the sect.

Even his notion that Daojue was a clan-born was just an assumption, one originally based on the way Daojue acted and his martial skill, later reinforced by Yikongwei Beidao's note about a supposed Tianzijun Clan, and further strengthened by what Meiyao had told him about chromal bloodlines.

"You had a younger brother?" Jieyuan asked. This time Daojue did not speak, simply turned around as if the conversation was over. Jieyuan didn't need Daojue to confirm it, though. Daojue almost never spoke, and every time he did, Jieyuan was sure the man picked each word deliberately. A dead brother, then. Jieyuan took a moment to consider that new piece of information.

One thing was clear: Daojue must've cared a great deal for his sibling if the memory of his younger brother was strong enough to make him want to help Jieyuan. He had hard time imagining Daojue caring deeply for someone else, though. But… Maybe Daojue hadn't always been this way? His younger brother was dead. Some tragedy, maybe? Jieyuan mulled it over for a while longer, wondering what Daojue's brother and their relationship had been like, before dropping that line of thought for the time being.

Whatever Daojue's life had been like before he'd joined the sect didn't matter. Not right now, at any rate. Jieyuan had bigger concerns at hand.

"I'm going for my breakthrough, then," he said. He didn't wait for Daojue to reply; he'd probably have to wait forever otherwise. He just closed his eyes and sent his focus inward. His soul appeared in his mind's eye. A sphere floating in the center of his chest. As a fourth-step Redsoul, it should've been a perfect, fourth-shade red in color; it didn't matter how close he was to the next step, because the soul was only supposed to take on the color of the stable chroma imbuing it.

His soul wasn't even one of the chromal shades, though; rather, it was a dark, deep red, almost maroon. With every breakthrough it seemed to get a little closer to the shade it should've been, but it was still far from the right color. But Jieyuan didn't let himself dwell on that for long.

Meiyao hadn't been able to think of an explanation for why his soul was that; if even she, who knew so many things beyond the scope of a Redsoul, had no idea, then Jieyuan reckoned the color of his soul would be remaining a mystery for a good while. Jieyuan sent his soulsenses deeper until he could see his soulprism. Then he took a deep breath and chanted his imbuing hymn:"Ravenous." His soulprism slowly fell apart, the chroma comprising it dispersing outward throughout the center of his soul.

Very soon a particle of chroma reached the inner surface of his soul's shell, pressing against it; then, pushed by the force of his chant, the chroma particle burrowed inside the shell. At its intrusion, Jieyuan felt a prickle in his chest like as if he'd been pierced by a needle. Several more followed in quick sequence. Jieyuan regulated his breath, bracing himself. Normally, when he was imbuing, those needle pricks would give way to stabs, and then the burning would take over as the First Pain began in earnest.

But he'd already been on the verge of breakthrough before he started this imbuing session, so the First Pain didn't get a chance to develop; just moments later, the unstable chroma in his soul reached one whole prismful, and his breakthrough—the soul-flare—began. The Second Pain took over. It came as a shock of bright, blazing agony. A bolt of burning lightning cutting across his body.

Sheer will kept him from jerking his body back as he was struck by dozens then hundreds of searing flashes of the purest, rawest agony, all happening at the same time. Jieyuan endured, teeth gritted, his whole body clenched, tensed, frozen tight. Distantly, some part of him realized that the way he retained some level of awareness was a good thing, an improvement over his last four breakthroughs. One second, two, three… And then came the fire. The burning.

A wave of hot, searing pain washed over him like he was being dunked in lava. Like he was drowning in lava, breathing in the thick, impossibly hot molten sludge, and it was ravaging through the inside of his body, spreading throughout every inch of him. Whatever awareness he'd managed to hold onto was utterly destroyed. He became the fire; nothing of himself remained. There was only fire—fire—fire—fire—fire— And then it was over. The absence of pain came so suddenly it didn't feel real. Nothing felt real.

Jieyuan blinked, dazed. He saw things in front of him. Colors, shapes. But his mind was too scrambled, too raw, to make sense of anything. A deep, echoing numbness engulfed him. He was floating, drifting, senseless—"Jieyuan." The call grounded him. He looked up. Daojue was standing right in front of him, looking down at him. Everything started making sense again. It all came back in a surge: where he was, who he was, what he'd just been doing.

Jieyuan closed his eyes, took a moment to center himself, then focused back on Daojue.

"I'm good." Daojue's gaze lingered on him for a few moments longer before the other man stepped back, turning away again. Jieyuan realized, then, that he was still sitting; in fact, his position hadn't changed, for the most part. My self-control really is improving. He didn't dare risk any big movements yet, so he started slow and small, flexing his fingers and limbs, getting a proper feel for all of his body again. Then he uncrossed his legs, pressed against the ground, made to stand up.

A little unsteadily, but he was feeling better and better by the second. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. By the time he was on his feet, he was in top form again, feeling as good as he'd ever felt. Bursting with energy, keenly aware of the bigger pool of strength he could draw on his mantle for. He started stretching, putting this crackling energy in him to use. As he worked his body, he turned his soulsenses inward again, confirming the changes.

The color of his mantle had changed, going from fourth-shade red to fifth-shade. The color of his soul had also changed; it wasn't fifth-shade red, still way too dark, but the red in it was clearer, richer. Like with his previous breakthroughs, this last one had brought his soul closer to the shade it was supposed to be. There were other changes: his soulprism was noticeably smaller. It hadn't lost any chroma, though; rather, it'd gone up a shade, meaning it was denser now.

As a fifth-step Redsoul, he could hold five prismfuls of attuned chroma in his soul, instead of just four. While he was at it, he confirmed that the Fatebloom Heart's spirit had also become fifth-shade red, though a silver-tinted variation of it; it was still following his step, as expected. And as for the biggest change of all… Jieyuan concentrated on his mantle and quickly found what he was looking for: the ambient chroma in contact with it was very subtly shifting. Being consumed, he knew.

That'd be the work of his new Redtalent, Chromal Sustenance. It gave his mantle the ability to passively sacrifice ambient chroma to fulfill all his body's needs while vanishing any waste his body produced. Going forward, he wouldn't need fasting pills anymore. He shouldn't even need to breathe anymore, though he'd have to test that one later, just to be safe. Finishing up his stretches, Jieyuan drew the Shifting Sisters and walked over to the edge of the clearing, in the direction he roughly assumed to be north.

He came to a stop not too close to the edge (in case anything chose that moment to come through) and stared at the thick, impenetrable curtain of mist ahead of him. Up to this point, it'd been Meiyao's job to guide them. Even now Jieyuan still didn't have a clear idea of what it was she did, exactly. That had been one thing she'd never been able to explain properly; all she'd been able to say was that she could connect with the mist, somehow. But now Meiyao wasn't there, so he'd have to try something else.

Huaxin, how's it looking? Jieyuan focused on his bond with the Fatebloom Heart, directing his thoughts toward it. He'd known Huaxin had a hard time getting a clear read on the situation because of the viridian mist, but he'd never really tried to push it, either. He'd never needed to, with Meiyao around. The whole business with Viridian Death City had left Jieyuan with some doubts about Meiyao's ability to gauge danger, but she hadn't given him reason to dispute her ability to navigate the mist.

Can you tell anything? Jieyuan pressed. Anything at all? At first, he didn't get anything specific through his bond with Huaxin. Just a vague, general sense of frustration. He could feel its effort, though. Could tell that it was trying to glean something— anything— from beyond the mist. So he didn't press the issue and let it work. Footsteps sounded quietly behind him; glancing back, he saw Daojue stop just behind him, Gleaming End held up, ready for anything. As usual, Daojue didn't ask questions.

Just stood there. But after what Daojue had told him about his brother, Jieyuan reckoned he could at least explain what he was trying to do here.

"I'm using the Fatebloom Heart," he said.

"You… I'm assuming you're aware of it?" Daojue received his words with a neutral look. Jieyuan gave it a few moments, but his friend didn't seem inclined to speak. Sometimes Jieyuan could easily tell what Daojue's silence meant. This time, he wasn't sure, but he'd go with an affirmative. He'd discussed the Fatebloom Heart often enough with Meiyao that unless Daojue was going out of his way to ignore them, he'd know the gist of it. And Jieyuan knew that Daojue did listen; he just didn't react, for the most part.

"I'm seeing if it can get a feel for anything," Jieyuan continued.

"Like how Meiyao does. Can't tell you how long this will take, though, or if it'll even work." Daojue's gaze moved away from him, shifting to the curtain of mist in front of them. And that was that. Almost an hour passed, and Jieyuan would've long since given up hope if it weren't for the fact that Huaxin hadn't given up yet. Jieyuan could still feel its unwavering concentration as it tried to get Fatebloom Intuition to work through the mist, pushing itself so hard his heart raced.

Because he'd been focused on the bond, he felt it at the same time as Huaxin did—saw it as Huaxin saw it. A jumble of sensations and impressions, so brief Jieyuan couldn't make sense of it. All feedback he got from Fatebloom Intuition was usually filtered through Huaxin first, and even then, they weren't exactly clear. Jieyuan couldn't even begin to make sense of this raw glimpse into the future, or whatever that had been. But then Huaxin summarized it for him, SAFE.

There was still a fairly strong current of uncertainty to it, but they'd waited long enough anyway. He nodded to Daojue, then stepped into the thicker mist. As it turned out, it was safe. So one down. And a million more to go. —∞— Jieyuan stood in the middle of the clearing, eyes on the thicker wall of mist ahead that marked the edge of the pocket. How's it looking, Huaxin? It'd been about eleven days since their fight with the two-headed snake. Six days since he and Daojue had set off again.

And one thing Jieyuan had figured out quickly was that he didn't need to be that close to the edge for Huaxin to use Fatebloom Intuition. It hadn't taken long for that particular discovery to prove life-saving. If a beast rushed into the pocket, the spot right in front of it was just about the worst place to be, and little surprise there. UNCLEAR. Jieyuan sighed. Then he turned to Daojue, who was waiting by his side, and gave a little shake of the head.

Three days ago, he'd have said "Wait," and five days ago he might have explained further, saying "I can't get a clear feel for it, let's give it a little while." Now, though, just the head shake did the trick. It also saved him from having to interrupt Maeva's chanting. He was still working his way back to his full chroma reserves now that his maximum capacity had been increased with his breakthrough. Jieyuan's gaze lingered briefly on the cut across Daojue's bare chest.

It'd happened three days ago, when they'd fought a pack of chromal wolves. At the time, it'd been deep, but a steady regime of regeneration augmenters, coupled with Daojue's regeneration rate—far higher than Jieyuan's, even though they were both at fifth-step Redrealm—had reduced it to a thin, faded, off-white line. Jieyuan hadn't suffered any wounds as bad these last few days, but what he lacked in quality, he made up for in quantity. He glanced down, eyeing the many, many cuts littering his bare upper body.

They were all healing nicely, though, and wouldn't be getting in the way. He hadn't had to resort to Fatebloom Renewal yet. Four days ago, he'd had the idea to dispense with the use of robes altogether and make do only with trousers. They were fighting several dozen beasts per day on average now, and that was a sure recipe for ravaged clothing. Jieyuan didn't have many more spare robes left over, and he didn't see a point ruining them too. Not when there was no need for that much modesty, with only Daojue around.

He'd also long since replaced the makeshift rope connecting them to a rawhide one. A chromal one. The clothes-made one had a hard time surviving their encounters, and Jieyuan wasn't about to risk getting split up from Daojue too. He gave the pocket they were in another, more careful look. There were some bushes near the edges, plus some flowers growing around it. He made his way over, started picking them up. Daojue followed, but from a distance.

Jieyuan crouched down in front of the bush and started picking the little white flowers dotting it. They were ones he recognized, ones he'd seen before with Meiyao. Useful for antidote concoctions. He recognized the nearby flowers, too; they were also used in antidotes. He had his attention split three ways. Part of it was on the flower-picking. As it turned out, Meiyao had been right. There was a trick to collecting the flowers, and it was different for each one.

Angle and strength: if you got either wrong, you risked damaging it. He was still far from familiar with the properties of this specific flower, but he could still tell the difference between the ones he plucked and the ones still rooted, how the one in his hand was diminished. When Meiyao had done it, there'd been no such change. Very carefully, very gently, he plucked another flower out. Shrub flowers, he'd found, were easier to handle than the ones growing on the ground.

Even then, though, he saw with his soulsenses as its presence darkened a little, its spirit somehow damaged as its connection to the rest of it was cut off. If he was fully focusing on it, he might have done better, but he didn't have the luxury. Another part of his attention was on his bond to Huaxin, keeping track of its progress. It wasn't rare for Huaxin to suddenly blast alarms at him, and the sooner Jieyuan got any such warnings, the better. Every fraction of a second counted.

The majority of Jieyuan's attention was on his surroundings, though. Huaxin's predictions were right more often than not; and nowadays, after it'd gotten so much practice getting through the mist, it could tell about nine times out of ten when danger was really close by. The problem was that one time out of ten that Huaxin still got it wrong. That one time out of ten when, all of a sudden, a beast would come rushing into the clearing, all murder-eyed, and he and Daojue would have to scramble to deal with it.

That was also why Jieyuan picked flowers with only one hand, holding a Shifting Sister with his other. And also why he now had attached to his belt a series of small, makeshift little purse-like bags as well as strapped holsters. Like their new rope, these purses and holsters were made from the hide of some of the many, many beasts he and Daojue had killed over the last few days. In the holsters were his Orangerealm scale-made murder tools.

Reaching into his holder pouch for them took too long; he needed to be able to draw them on a moment's notice. The purses, on the other hand, were for his few remaining talismans (he'd been forced to use more than half his stock already) and pills Right now, he had a few dozen pills of various types in his holder pouch.

A few days ago, he'd have thought that he had plenty, but at the rate he and Daojue were going through them, and with how much ground they still had to cover, it didn't seem like his stock would be anywhere near enough. Dozens of thousands wouldn't have been enough, really. Not in the long run. He could've sure used more talismans, too. It didn't take him long to collect all the flowers. He didn't manage to pick a single one the right way, but it didn't matter all that much.

He wasn't yet at the level where he could do structured refining (the standard way, following clear, thoroughly tested instructions), never mind Meiyao's unique brand of free-forming on-the-spot refining. But that didn't mean he wouldn't try to refine them anyway. He always spent at least some time trying his hand at it after he and Daojue stopped for the day. He'd failed at each and every attempt so far; always right at the beginning, during essencification. But he kept at it.

Whenever he tried to refine, he felt as if Meiyao was there, guiding him through the steps. More than that, he wanted to surprise her with how much he'd improved when they met again. Because they would meet again. Jieyuan plucked the last of the flowers and put it away in his pouch. Huaxin hadn't given the okay to proceed yet. Huaxin's ability to navigate the mist worked much like Meiyao's, ascertaining when it would be safe to pass.

What the next pocket would be wasn't a fixed thing, so they just had to wait until Huaxin's predictive powers determined the next pocket would be a safe one. Huaxin sometimes made mistakes, but these days it was almost always right. Just a little while more, then. Jieyuan stood up and unsheathed his other Shifting Sister. Just in case Huaxin had gotten it wrong. He moved back to the center of the clearing to wait. Daojue trailed behind him. SAFE, Huaxin sent him after a minute had passed.

Jieyuan started toward the edge again. Three steps in Huaxin sent: DANGER. LEFT. Heart racing, Jieyuan jumped backward, whirling toward the side of the clearing. Daojue followed suit. Long, thin, white pincer-like legs broke out of the mist, digging into the ground at the edge of the pocket. They were striped green and covered in a coat of sparse, fine hair.

As they rose and fell slowly, smoothly, moving forward, the head came into view: round, ball-like, large as a man's chest, as white and smooth as bone and green-patterned. Dotting the front of it were multiple beady green eyes, arranged in a curved row. Just below the eyes was what Jieyuan took to be the mouth: two fleshy, stubby, green-fanged protrusions, bunched together. And extending from either side of them, longer, limb-like appendages, angled forward. More legs were connected to the ball-like head.

Behind the front two appeared another pair, and then another. And then the final pair, and together with it, another round body, larger than the head and colored just the same, white and green. A spider. A massive chromal spider. The tips of its legs were just within the thirty-foot range of Jieyuan's soulsenses. Tenth-step Redrealm. The spider stopped there, staring at them with its smattering of bright-green eyes. Now, Jieyuan didn't have anything particularly against spiders.

He saw them the same as any other insect—"Arachnid," Maeva cut into his thoughts. She'd stopped chanting the moment Huaxin had sent his warning. Did I ask? Jieyuan glanced to his right, where Maeva had just appeared. She always did that nowadays whenever a fight started. Jieyuan passed control over his soulsenses to her, then released his hold on Sapphire. Instead of falling, the Shifting Sister floated over to where Maeva was. She took hold of the splitfang. His footwork was improving, and so were his senses.

Unless he was up against an Orangerealm beast—or a lot of Redrealm ones—he'd found he was better served with Maeva fighting by his side, through his soulforce, rather than through his body. His right hand free now, Jieyuan slowly reached into the pouch by his waist and fished out a scale dagger. He didn't reach for the pills, yet. Their stock was limited. He only went for them if he needed to, and he wasn't sure yet how fast this spider was.

He'd never faced a chromal spider before, hadn't even known they were a thing. Go away, Jieyuan thought at the spider. Come on, you've taken a look at the two funny humans. Be happy with that and turn around. Be smart. Come on. About one time out of three, the beasts they came across eventually retreated. Jieyuan hoped this was one of those times. He really wasn't looking to find out what kind of nasty tricks a chromal spider might have up its nonexistent sleeve.

The last thing Jieyuan wanted was for this to turn into a fight. He and Daojue should be able to handle it; they had dealt with an Orangerealm snake already, for Heavens' sake. But more often than not, the sounds of their fighting drew more beasts in. And the sort of beasts drawn to the sound of fighting tended hard toward the dangerous end of the spectrum. More than that, there was always a risk with fighting beasts they'd never faced before.

They didn't know its spiritskills, and that kind of unknown could very well lead to terribly unwelcome surprises. The two-headed snake had been proof enough of that. The spider's mouthparts opened and closed. Twitched. Viridian mist drifted around the spider, curling lazily around its limbs. The next thing Jieyuan knew, something green and bright and liquid was shooting towards him. He reacted instantly, jumping to the side, while Maeva shot forward, putting herself in front of him, swinging her Shifting Edge.

But it'd come too suddenly, too fast, and he got splashed on his chest, arms, and down his legs. The liquid hardened on contact, congealing into thin, sticky glowing green strings. A good deal of the liquid had landed on the ground, too, and all of it was connected. It anchored him to the spot, the strings pulling at him as he tried to instinctively move away. His arms weren't spared, either, as the hardened string bound them tight to his torso.

Maeva had also been in the spray's way, but she wasn't really there, didn't actually exist. Sapphire did, though—and now there was a tangle of green strings connecting the floating Shifting Sister to the ground. Maeva was trying to pull it loose, twirling it around, but it was useless. There were strings on the blade itself, and even those stayed unbroken despite Maeva's efforts. Ahead, the spider slowly advanced toward them. Come on, come on, come on, Jieyuan thought as he contorted wildly against the strings.

Abruptly the spider halted its approach; at the same time, Jieyuan caught a flash of red from his left. Jieyuan glanced toward it, not taking his eyes off the spider entirely. It was Daojue. The glow hadn't come from Gleaming End, though. He wasn't even holding it; the spear was floating beside him. Rather, the glow had come from Daojue's arms. From the red, glowing gauntlets Daojue was wearing all of a sudden.

And as Daojue quickly waved the gauntlets in front of him, over his body, all the strings it touched snapped on the spot.