Chương 144: Struggle

Leo spent the three days of his ingame death cooldown winding down operations in the Atlanta Catacombs. They had basically run out of spiritual qi. The government grant that was supposed to last four years had evaporated in four weeks, burned through by formation research, puppet analysis, and the small army of consultants they'd hired to decode the language of the Empire. Leo sent everyone home. The formation researchers returned to their universities. The linguistics team packed up their translation databases.

Kevin went back to Queens, muttering something about needing a long vacation from anything involving formations. Leo flew back to his apartment in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The place felt smaller than he remembered. Three floors above a dry cleaner, with a window that overlooked a parking lot. He told himself that as soon as he finally freed himself from debt, he would move somewhere nicer. The first night back, he woke at three in the morning with his hands pressed over his eyes.

He'd been pushing down hard enough to leave marks. The compulsion to open his ortho-k vision had died with his body in the depths, but the memory hadn't. That voice that sounded like his own, telling him to see the true nature of what stood before him. He sat on the edge of his bed and waited for his hands to stop shaking. They didn't. He sat in the dark and tried to figure out if his thoughts were his own. That was the worst part.

Something had spoken to him in his own voice, and now he was back in his apartment in New Jersey, and he didn't know if he'd come back clean. He opened his laptop. The screen was too bright. He squinted at it and started searching. Slaughter Qi contamination symptoms. Nothing useful. Just a bunch of Redditors who claimed Slaughter Qi didn't exist and was just a figment of imagination. Void Refining mental influence. A fantasy novel review. And two Youtube Ads about a video game. Ancient corpse psychic compulsion.

A Wikipedia article about Egyptian mummies. He closed the laptop. There was no guide for this. No one on Earth had cracked open the coffin of a being that had destroyed a civilization and lived to wonder if it had followed them home. Leo lay back down and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes. The character stared back. If he wanted answers, he would need to go ask in the Azure Profound Continent.

Azure Profound Continent Leo logged back in and spent the next few days flying back to Skyhome. The landscape of the Savage Mountains unfolded beneath him. The path he traveled was barren and far from the war. The Mountains looked peaceful. Cloudpiercer and the Enlightened seemed like a distant memory. Leo needed to talk to someone he could trust. The problem was that Leo didn't know if he could trust anyone who answered to the Imperial Court, and that included Lord Ironhorn.

The secret police had descended into the ruins. They had triggered the Deity Transformation puppets. Leo couldn't tell if the Enlightened had sent them down there, or if the order came from the Dragon Throne Either way, something was very wrong at the highest levels of power. He needed to talk about what he saw with someone else. The problem was that he didn't know how far the Enlightened's influence reached. Anyone who answered to the Imperial Court could already be compromised. He had the Shen family.

Tianyi was a friend, and Grandpa Shen had been fair in their dealings. But one family of formation masters couldn't stand against the Imperial Court alone. The only option he could think of was the Beast Kings. Turning to the enemies of humankind was strange, but he didn't know who else he could talk to. He sent word through Mike, asking him to contact Lord Flockfeather and request a meeting with the beasts.

Human Hut Mountain, Skyhome A few days later, Leo stood in the modest little hut that Mike had built and tried not to feel embarrassed. Although the cranes had named this peak Human Hut Mountain, Leo had begun to wish they had built more than a hut. All they had was a single small room with a low table, a few cushions, and a few sleeping mats rolled up in the corner. He swept the floor for the third time that morning.

This was where he had chosen to hold a meeting with the Deity Transformation envoy of the Beast Kings. Leo set the broom aside and checked his robes. They were clean and presentable. He had even managed to find a formal outer layer that didn't have any obvious patches or scorch marks. A presence appeared at the edge of his divine sense. A Nascent Soul Lord arrived. His robes were plain gray silk, unadorned except for subtle embroidery at the cuffs. His face was weathered and lined with experience. Leo straightened.

Shen Weishan. The Shen family patriarch. Tianyi's grandfather. Tianyi complained about his grandfather constantly. The old man's frugality bordered on obsession. He tracked every spiritstone the family spent, remembered debts from a century ago, and never let anyone forget either fact. Leo cupped his hands and bowed.

"Lord Shen. Thank you for coming." The old man studied him for a moment. Then he smiled.

"Leo Chen." Lord Shen Weishan's voice was warm.

"My grandson speaks of you often. He tells this old man you have a gift for walking into disaster and walking out again with something valuable."

"Tianyi's being generous."

"Tianyi never speaks well of others. That is how I know he means it." Weishan stepped forward and clapped Leo on the shoulder.

"Call me Grandpa Shen. All friends of the Shen family do." Leo blinked. Grandpa Shen walked past him into the hut.

"This is cozy," he said, looking around.

"I like it. Too many young cultivators these days build palaces they can't afford and spend the next century paying off the debt." He nodded approvingly at the bare walls.

"Simple. Practical. You have good sense." The old man settled onto one of the cushions and produced a tea set from his storage ring. The ceramic was simple but elegant, glazed in deep blue with subtle patterns that caught the light. A small brazier followed, along with a clay jar sealed with formation script.

"Tier Four tea leaves," Grandpa Shen said, noting Leo's glance.

"Spirit-Calming Jade Needle. Good for settling the mind before difficult conversations." He began measuring leaves into the pot.

"You look like you could use it." Leo sat across from him.

"Is it that obvious?"

"You have the look of a man who has seen something he wishes he hadn't." Grandpa Shen struck the brazier.

"Tianyi gets the same expression when he sees this old man looking for him." The water had barely begun to steam when the air changed. A pressure descended on the mountain, hot and heavy. Leo begun to sweat. Grandpa Shen rose smoothly.

"She's early." They walked to the door together. Wings of flame spread across the horizon. Feathers of red and gold trailed streams of fire that dissipated into the morning air. The creature stretched easily a hundred feet from wingtip to wingtip. A Vermillion Bird. Leo had read about them. Cultivators had built an entire formation system around these divine creatures: the Four Symbols. Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and Vermillion Bird.

He had inscribed the Vermillion Bird array rune thousands of times. Not once had he thought about what the rune was actually depicting. He looked up at the Deity Transformation Spirit Beast, and the world fell away. He stood at the base of a mountain that hadn't been there a moment ago. Ash covered its slopes. White flame wreathed its peak like a crown. Its presence was so vast that he couldn't hold onto the idea that he was a person standing on solid ground. He was nothing.

A speck of ash on the slope of something eternal. His legs locked. His breath stopped. Every instinct told him to kneel. A hand gripped his shoulder, and a pulse of cool spiritual energy cut through the heat like water on a hot summer day. The mountain vanished. The world snapped back into place. Leo stood on the doorstep of the hut with Grandpa Shen's hand still on his shoulder, his knees shaking, his heart slamming against his ribs.

"Steady," Grandpa Shen said quietly.

"She's testing you. Breathe." Leo breathed. The Vermillion Bird descended toward Human Hut Mountain, and the spiritual pressure intensified with every passing second. His robes smoked at the edges. The timber walls of the hut creaked and groaned. But Grandpa Shen's hand stayed on his shoulder, and the cool qi held the terror at arm's length long enough for Leo to plant his feet and stay standing. The bird landed in the clearing. Flames licked at the grass without burning it.

For a moment, the creature stood there, watching them in silence. Then the form shifted. Flames became silk, wings became arms, and suddenly a woman stood where the phoenix had been. She wore layered red robes. Strands of deep crimson ran through her black hair, and her eyes were the color of molten copper. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. She stood perfectly still, watching them without blinking.

Grandpa Shen stepped forward and cupped his hands.

"Monarch Embercrown. This humble elder is honored beyond measure that the Voice of the Southern Court has graced us with her presence."

"Shen Weishan." Her voice was low and flat.

"You grow bold in your old age, summoning me to a mountaintop shack. Get to the point."

"The young man brings news from the depths below, of the Everlasting Empire." Embercrown's gaze shifted to Leo. He felt the weight of it pressing against his spiritual sea, inspecting him.

"You're the one Flockfeather keeps talking about." She looked him up and down.

"Smaller than I expected." Leo bowed.

"Monarch Embercrown. Thank you for coming all this way."

"I came because you claim to have laid eyes on the Corpse Eternal." She walked toward the hut.

"If you're wasting my time, I'll know within the first minute." She ducked through the doorway. The temperature inside the hut rose by ten degrees. They settled around the low table. Grandpa Shen poured tea. Embercrown lifted her cup, inhaled the steam, and set it down without drinking.

"Speak." He told them everything. The broken seal. The underground city suspended over darkness. The Follower in his white robes, speaking of the Enlightened. The battle with the Nascent Soul puppets. The fortress with its Deity Transformation constructs. Leo described the spirit vein pipes. A hidden Tier Five flow ran beneath the surface in a province everyone considered barren. And the empty Tier Six pipe proved something greater had once flowed through the system. He told them about the elevator descent.

The millions of sealed tombs. The ring of Deity Transformation coffins. The shell of Void Refining material that served as a cage. And finally, he told them about the hatch. The corpse in chains. The Void Refining Eternal who had tried to transcend death and destroyed an empire in the attempt.

"It spoke to me," Leo said. His voice was steady, but his hands had started to shake again.

"One character. Struggle. It burned itself into my mind before I self-detonated." The room was silent. Leo looked down at his hands.

"I need to know something. When I came back, when I respawned, I felt... normal. But I was exposed to the Slaughter Qi. I opened the hatch. I looked at the Eternal directly." He met Embercrown's eyes.

"Am I corrupted?" The Vermillion Bird studied him for a long moment.

"I checked you when I landed," she said.

"I have been inspecting your spiritual sea since we entered this hut." Leo's heart hammered in his chest.

"You're clean." Embercrown lifted her tea and took a sip. The relief only lasted a few seconds. Grandpa Shen set down his teacup.

"Young friend, being clean does not mean the situation is resolved. What you have described is far graver than you understand." Leo looked at him.

"Worse how?"

"Consider the nature of the problem. The Enlightened has supporters among the Court's own agents. You witnessed this yourself when the Embroidered Uniform Guard descended into the ruins. On the surface, we lack the political standing to oppose him directly." Grandpa Shen folded his hands.

"This is the trend of the times. The cultivators of this era have forgotten the horrors of the old world. As Monarchs and Lords approach the end of their lifespans, they will do anything for the chance to reach the next realm. Anyone who offers that chance will find willing followers." Embercrown nodded in agreement. Grandpa Shen continued.

"You have brought us two crucial pieces of information. They are linked, and together they change the entire situation." He held up one finger.

"The first: the Corpse Eternal was never destroyed. It is being contained by a Tier Six spirit vein. The vein's power feeds the chains, the shell, the entire containment system. This is why the empty pipe you saw once carried Void Refining spiritual qi. The vein is still there, still flowing, but all of its output is consumed by the seals."

"Many cultivators have suspected this. It is a well known legend among the Monarchs. But exploring the depths of the ruins would require multiple Deity Transformation Monarchs to sacrifice their lives. The cost has always been too high for anyone to attempt it." He paused.

"Until now." Grandpa Shen held up a second finger.

"The second piece of information: a respawning otherworldly cultivator exists. And based on the events you have described, this old man is certain the Enlightened is a Deity Transformation Monarch." He let that settle.

"Leo," Grandpa Shen said.

"How long do you think the Enlightened takes to respawn?" Leo thought about his own death cooldowns. Foundation Establishment was seventy-five hours. Each realm multiplied the duration by five. He did the math in his head.

"Roughly three hundred and ninety days." Grandpa Shen nodded. Leo stared at the table. He understood what Grandpa Shen was implying. Even if the cultivation world united against the Enlightened, even if they killed him a hundred times, he would keep coming back. Keep trying. And that assumed they could unite at all. It was far more likely that cultivators would follow the Enlightened once word spread. They would want a piece of those top tier spirit veins.

"What happens if the Corpse Eternal gets out?" Grandpa Shen was quiet for a moment.

"You saw the tombs," he said.

"Millions of sealed jiangshi, suspended above the containment chamber. When the Eternal wakes, it will call to them. Every tomb will open. Every zombie cultivator buried in those depths will rise and follow their master." He gestured vaguely westward.

"And the installation you explored was one of many. The Everlasting Empire spanned the entire western region of the continent. Other burial grounds exist." Previously, during the last few days, Leo had been busy keeping his mind occupied, off the Struggle character, and he hadn't fully thought about and processed everything that he had seen. However, after Grandpa Shen laid out everything for him, he realized the true nature of the War of Western Unification.

Cloudpiercer's war wasn't actually about unifying the two western provinces. Instead, Cloudpiercer was using the war as cover to break through the imperial seals guarding the underground ruins of the Everlasting Empire. Cloudpiercer's secret trump card was his alliance with an undying cultivator, the Enlightened, who could sacrifice himself repeatedly in an effort to get access to the Tier Six spirit vein.

Cloudpiercer's goal wasn't about gathering more followers so he could break through to the Void Refining Realm. It was much simpler: to use the war as an opportunity to unearth a long-forgotten Tier Six spirit vein located somewhere deep beneath the provinces. If the Enlightened broke apart the cage that trapped the Corpse Eternal, he would release a horror that the Imperial Court had kept sealed away for millennia rather than face it directly.

And with it, the endless layers of tombs Leo had passed during his descent.

"We're talking about tens of millions of zombie cultivators."

"At minimum." The old man looked grim.

"An invasion on a scale the continent has never seen." Embercrown spoke.

"We will need to establish a defensive line on the western edge of the Savage Mountains." Grandpa Shen explained to Leo.

"Ancient defensive formations run along the border of the mountain range. Cultivators originally constructed them during the conflicts with the Hindustan Empire to the southwest. The formations have been dormant for millennia, but the infrastructure remains intact. Reactivation is a matter of resources, not capability." Leo looked up.

"Wait. The Hindustan Empire. I've heard that it disappeared suddenly too, just like the Everlasting Empire. Did they also have a Corpse Eternal problem?" Embercrown let out a short breath through her nose. It must have been her version of a laugh.

"Worse." She stood. The temperature in the hut dropped as she moved toward the door.

"But that is a conversation for another day." She paused at the threshold and looked back at Leo.

"You did well, Leo Chen. Few cultivators at any realm would have found the ruins. Fewer still would have risked their lives to open that hatch." She studied him for a moment longer.

"Send word through Flockfeather if you learn anything else. I will bring this to the Kings." Then she walked out into the morning air, and flames consumed her form. The Vermillion Bird spread its wings and rose into the sky, trailing fire across the horizon until it vanished into the distance.

Leo turned back to Grandpa Shen.

"One more question. The character the Eternal burned into my mind. Struggle. What does it mean?" Grandpa Shen poured himself another cup of tea. The liquid had gone cold during Embercrown's visit, but he drank it anyway.

"That character was the Corpse Eternal's Dao." He sipped his tea.

"The essence of his comprehension, distilled into a single array rune and branded upon your consciousness."

"You are fortunate that you had already glimpsed your own Dao before you opened that hatch. A cultivator who gazes upon the Dao of an Eternal without first possessing their own understanding will find the Struggle overwriting their path entirely. You would have returned to the surface as the Eternal's disciple." Leo stared at the table. He'd nearly died. He'd stared into the face of something that could end civilization. And all he had to show for it was nightmares and a character burned into his brain.

Leo began to grow worried that he had risked his life for almost nothing again. Grandpa Shen watched him for a moment. Then he smiled.

"You want to know if the trip was worth it." Leo looked up.

"Yeah. I almost got corrupted and all I got was bad news."

"You remind this old man of Tianyi," Grandpa Shen said with a chuckle.

"He asks the same question after every venture." He leaned back on his cushion.

"The answer is yes. You gained several things of considerable value. First, the Beast Kings now owe you a small favor. This debt can be repaid in many ways."

"For example, they could repay it in Tier Three spiritual qi. Tianyi tells this old man you earn money by bringing formations back to your world. With a steady supply of Tier Three energy, the profit margins must be substantial." Leo felt a spark of excitement. Maybe he could actually start paying back his debts. But the excitement faded quickly. His divine sense training required the press at the Hidden Hideout, which was days of flight from Skyhome. He couldn't be in two places on the continent at once.

"That's good to know." Leo rubbed the back of his neck.

"But I need to focus on raising my divine sense first. I won't be able to take advantage of it for a while." Grandpa Shen nodded.

"There is one more thing." Leo looked at him.

"Tell me, Leo. Have you studied forbidden formations?"

"No." Leo shook his head.

"Mr. Morimoto mentioned them, but he said they couldn't be taught normally, and that you needed specific experiences to understand them. Visions, weird encounters, that kind of thing."

"Correct." Grandpa Shen set his empty cup aside.

"Forbidden formations exist beyond the realm of diagrams and lectures. They must be witnessed firsthand. And you have just witnessed one. Struggle." He let the silence sit for a moment.

"Very few cultivators in the history of this continent have witnessed the Dao of an Eternal and retained their own sense of self. Because you survived with your mind intact, you now possess the qualification to inscribe forbidden formations that use the Struggle Array Rune." Leo sat up straighter. This was what he wanted to hear. Something concrete. Something that made staring into the face of the Corpse Eternal worth the nightmares.

"Can you recall the character?"

"Oh yeah." Leo nodded.

"I see it every time I close my eyes. It's kind of hard to miss. Watch." He closed his eyes. The character blazed across his vision. Struggle. It burned with the same intensity it had in the depths, searing itself into his mind's eye. Leo's eyes snapped open. He was on his feet, hands pressed against the table, breathing hard.

"Okay. Yeah. Let's not do that again." Grandpa Shen waited patiently for him to sit back down.

"The Struggle Dao represents the fundamental nature of cultivation itself. The ceaseless war that all cultivators wage against the heavens to transcend their mortal limitations." The old man folded his hands.

"Everything under heaven struggles. This old man struggles. You struggle. Even wheat struggles." Leo nodded. That sounded a lot like the Desire for Life from the Heart of Flesh. The burning, universal hunger to exist that every living thing shared. He wasn't sure what the difference between the Dao of Struggle and the Desire for life was, but Grandpa Shen was already moving on. Grandpa Shen produced a jade slip from his storage ring.

"The Shen family archives contain many formations that this old man will never be able to draw. Among them is one called the Struggle of Ten Thousand Swords Seeking Heaven Forbidden Formation. It has gathered dust for countless generations." He set the jade slip on the table between them.

"An offensive array designed to be inscribed upon an enemy's spiritual treasure. The formation awakens something dormant within the treasure. A desire for transcendence. A hunger to break free of its bonds and ascend." Leo's eyes lit up.

"And I can draw it. Because I've witnessed the Struggle."

"Correct." Grandpa Shen slid the jade slip toward him.

"Countless formation masters of the Shen family have looked upon this diagram and set it aside, because the crucial forbidden formation at its core requires the Struggle Forbidden Array Rune. No Shen has ever witnessed the Dao of an Eternal and kept their mind. You have." Leo pulled Sunshifter from his dantian.

"How long does it take to learn? Can I put it on my sword?" Grandpa Shen's expression became pointed.

"Did you hear what this old man just said? This is an offensive formation. You inscribe it on your enemy's spiritual treasures. Their weapons. Their artifacts." Leo blinked. He looked down at the Sunshifter in his hand.

"If you were to successfully draw the Struggle Forbidden Formation on your own sword, it would ascend to the heavens and seek enlightenment."

"It would what?"

"Your sword would break its lifebond with you, fly into the sky, and leave you forever." Leo shoved the Sunshifter back into his dantian so fast he nearly cut himself.

"Got it. Enemy swords only. Let me see that jade slip."