Chương 145: The Struggle of Ten Thousand Swords Seeking Heaven

Skyhome, the Land of the Cranes"The answer is no, Leo." Leo opened his mouth.

"No, I will not loan you my sword." Mike held up his hand.

"No, you can't draw formations on my sword. No, you can't even look at my sword."

"Mike, I wasn't going to..."

"Kevin already told me what you tried to pull, Leo." Mike shook his head.

"That's mean. The man has trust issues. He spent three hours checking his dantian to make sure his Eclipse was still there." Leo raised his hands.

"Mike. Buddy. I wasn't going to say any of that. It was something completely different."

"Okay, fine. In that case, what do you want?"

"Lord Flockfeather arranged a volunteer for me. A Foundation Establishment crane about to form her Gold Core. She has a crown she's lifebonded with. Since she's going to advance realms anyway, she needs to break the lifebond regardless. Perfect test subject." Mike nodded.

"That actually sounds reasonable."

"I know, right?"

"Let me get the others."

The young crane stood in the center of the clearing, her silver-white plumage gleaming in the afternoon light. She was smaller than the older cranes, barely eight feet tall. Atop her head she wore a delicate circlet of woven silver and jade, with thin chains connecting three teardrop-shaped spiritstones that clinked softly whenever she moved. Arthur, Kevin, and Mike stood uncharacteristically far from Leo, their La Ferrari Eclipses hidden in their dantians.

Leo had spent the past few days practicing the The Struggle of Ten Thousand Swords Seeking Heaven Forbidden Formation on spare jade slips. The first three attempts at drawing the Struggle Forbidden Formation had fizzled. The fourth had launched itself through the roof of the hut and vanished over the eastern ridge before anyone could react. After that, the three of them had sworn off flying anywhere near Leo. They had walked all the way here on foot, single file, Eclipses sealed in their dantians the entire trip.

The young crane looked at Leo. Then at the formation brush in his hand. She shuffled backward.

"Easy," Leo said.

"Easy. Look, you're going to break the lifebond anyway when you advance, right? This is just... accelerating the process." The crane tilted her head. Her golden eyes blinked.

"You were going to lose it regardless." Leo took a careful step forward.

"This way, you get closure. A proper goodbye. And also..." He held up the bag of spiritual wheat.

"Snacks." The crane's pupils dilated. Her beak parted slightly.

"Tier Two wheat," Leo said.

"Fresh from the terraces. I had Mike prepare it just for you. Good stuff. The best we harvested this season." The crane looked at the bag. She looked at her crown. She looked at the bag again. Her wing reached toward the circlet atop her head, but she couldn't bring herself to remove it. A soft, mournful whistle escaped her beak.

"I know it's hard," Leo said.

"But think about it this way. Your crown gets to seek enlightenment. That's a pretty good retirement plan for a spiritual treasure, right? Flying off to pursue the Dao? Very dignified." The crane's head drooped.

"Better than being shattered from breaking a lifebond and thrown in the trash," Leo added.

"Forgotten. Buried. Never seeing the sky again." The crane made a sound like a deflating accordion.

"But this way, your crown gets to be free. Really free." Leo held up the wheat bag and shook it gently. The grain rustled inside.

"And you get snacks." The young crane's resolve crumbled. With trembling talons, she lifted the circlet from her head. The silver chains caught the sunlight one last time. The spiritstones pulsed with a soft inner glow, responding to their master's touch. She cradled the crown against her chest feathers. She whistled a long, low note. Then she extended the circlet toward Leo. Leo accepted the crown with both hands. The metal was warm from the crane's body heat. The spiritstones hummed faintly against his palms.

He could feel the lifebond threading through the artifact, connecting it to the young crane's spiritual sea.

"Okay." Leo settled into a cross-legged position.

"Everyone might want to step back." Arthur crossed his arms.

"Kid, I've seen some scary things in my life. Two tours in 'Nam. An IRS audit in '96." He squinted at the circlet.

"This is up there." Leo placed the circlet on the ground before him and closed his eyes. The character blazed across his vision. Struggle. The Dao of the Corpse Eternal, seared into his consciousness by a creature four full realms of cultivation above his own. His hands began to shake. He opened his eyes quickly.

"Okay." He took a deep breath.

"Let's do this." He produced his array brush and Tier Two spiritual ink from his storage ring. The circlet was Foundation Establishment tier, so he would need to draw a Tier Two formation for it to work. The young crane watched with wide, anxious eyes. Leo began to draw. Forbidden Formations were exceptionally difficult to draw. Every standard formation demanded precision, but a Forbidden Formation demanded something more: each stroke had to carry within it a fragment of the Dao that the forbidden rune represented.

The character burned in his mind's eye as he worked. Struggle. The fundamental nature of cultivation. The ceaseless war against heaven. His brush moved faster. The young crane whimpered softly. Leo's grin widened as he drew the final strokes. There was something deeply satisfying about this. The feeling of drawing something ancient and terrible and making it work. The formation flickered. Light raced through the array lines. The Seven Stars anchors blazed to life.

The Struggle Forbidden Array Rune at the center pulsed with a deep red glow. The crown began to shake. At first, the vibration was subtle, a faint tremor running through the metal. The spiritstones rattled against their chains. Then the shaking intensified. The circlet bounced against the ground. The chains whipped back and forth. The spiritstones blazed with sudden, desperate light. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Oh no." Kevin took a step back.

"Oh no." The young crane's eyes went wide. She lunged forward, talons outstretched, and snatched the circlet from the ground. The crown struggled in her grasp. She could feel it. They all could feel it. The lifebond still connected the artifact to her spiritual sea, but something else had awakened inside the treasure. Something that wanted to ascend. The circlet thrashed against her talons. The chains whipped and snapped. The spiritstones pulsed with frantic energy.

She wrapped her wings around the thrashing artifact and pressed it against her chest feathers with all her strength. But the crown wanted heaven. It slipped through her grasp like water through cupped hands. The chains slid between her talons. The spiritstones blazed one final time. And the circlet shot into the sky. The young crane shrieked. She spread her wings and launched herself after it, desperately chasing the ascending treasure. Higher and higher the crown flew.

The formation's glow faded as it traveled far away. The spiritstones became pinpricks of light against the blue sky, then vanished entirely. The crane searched for ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty. She circled the peak high in the sky, her divine sense sweeping in all directions. Nothing. The crown was gone. Ascending toward enlightenment. Pursuing the Dao among the clouds. The young crane descended slowly. Her wingbeats were heavy. Her head hung low. She landed in front of Leo. And she began to cry.

The sound was nothing like human weeping. It was a series of low, mournful whistles that rose and fell like wind through empty halls. Her body shuddered. Her feathers drooped. Tears, actual tears, rolled down her beak and dripped onto the ground. Leo held out the bag of spiritual wheat.

"It's, uh..." He cleared his throat.

"It's in a better place?" The crane snatched the bag from his hands and buried her beak in it. Arthur watched the crane sob into her wheat.

"Yep." He uncrossed his arms.

"That goes right to the top of the list." Arthur, Kevin, and Mike stared at Leo.

"Leo." Mike's voice was very calm, very controlled.

"If you ever, ever come near my Eclipse with an array brush, I will end you."

"Same," Kevin squeaked.

"What he said." Arthur jerked his thumb at Mike.

"And I mean it, kid." Leo looked at the young crane, sobbing into her bag of premium wheat. He looked at his array brush, still warm from the inscription. He looked at his three friends, all carefully inching away from him.

"Fair enough," Leo said. He was already thinking about what else he could help on its journey to the heavens.

Human Hut Mountain, Skyhome Leo sat across from Mike in the hut, going over the final details before his departure. He needed to go back to training his divine sense, which meant that for the foreseeable future he would be spending his time at the Hidden Hideout, days of flight from Skyhome. Because of that, he needed to make sure everything was taken care of before he left. They were almost done when a shadow passed over the clearing. Lord Flockfeather descended in a spiral of white feathers.

The crane landed gracefully on the stone path outside the hut, folded his wings, and shifted. Within seconds, a tall man in white stood where the bird had been.

"Leo Chen." Lord Flockfeather cupped his hands and offered a formal bow.

"This one is honored to visit your residence." Leo blinked. The Lord had never bowed to him before.

"Uh, thanks for coming by." Leo gestured vaguely at the hut.

"Sorry about the accommodations." Lord Flockfeather straightened and produced a small token from his sleeve. The jade was pale and cool, etched with a single character that seemed to shift when viewed from different angles.

"A gift." He extended the token toward Leo.

"The Kings have granted you the status of Friend of the Beasts. Carry this token, and no beast under heaven will bar your path through our lands." Leo accepted the token. It was heavier than it looked. The character on its surface was unfamiliar, but the formation work underlying it was sophisticated. Far beyond anything he could produce himself.

"Thanks," Leo said. He tucked the token into his storage ring.

"Sounds good to me." Lord Flockfeather watched him with an expression Leo couldn't quite read.

"This one also brings a proposal." The crane ruler produced a scroll from his sleeve and unrolled it across the low table in the hut. It was a map showing the western edge of the Savage Mountains, the border between the land of the beasts and the provinces of the humans. Past the mountains lay the Lanternmarches, and further west past that, the Thousandsteppes.

"The Kings have received word of your warning." Lord Flockfeather's voice carried a weight it hadn't before.

"A decree has been issued. The ancient fortifications along the Savage Mountains will be reactivated." He tapped a specific point on the map.

"The Kings offer you a peak along the defensive line, fed by a Tier Three spirit vein. The vein is yours to use freely. Should the tide come, we just ask that your peak bears its share of the burden." A faint smile crossed the Lord's face.

"How you fortify it is your own affair. This one suspects you will find ways to exceed expectations." Leo studied the map. The distribution of spirit veins caught his attention immediately. All of the mid-tier and high-tier spirit veins sat on a chain, like pearls on a string. And outside of that wall of spirit veins was nothing but barren wilderness. Tier One veins scattered across empty terrain. A handful of Tier Two deposits sat here and there.

Any invading force that tried to circumvent the walls would have to fight without supply lines. They would exhaust themselves crossing the barren zones while defenders drew freely from the fortified veins behind the walls. Centuries of warfare had shaped this infrastructure. Every peak had been chosen for a reason. Every spirit vein had been incorporated deliberately. The peak Lord Flockfeather had marked for him sat behind the front lines, connected to a Tier Three vein. A support position.

Close enough to contribute, far enough that he wouldn't have to cross swords with millions of jiangshi personally. But Leo already had plenty of commitments. The NFL season was coming. He had thirty million dollars in debt. His divine sense training required him to be at the Hidden Hideout, which was already days of flight from Skyhome. Adding "defend against a potential wave of millions of zombie cultivators" to his schedule seemed like a terrible idea.

"Lord Flockfeather, I appreciate the offer." Leo chose his words carefully.

"But I have stuff going on back on Earth. I can't be stationed at a fortress full-time."

"You misunderstand." Lord Flockfeather shook his head.

"This one does not ask you to forsake your other obligations. Visit when your path allows. Contribute what you are able. The Kings are not unreasonable. They know your roots lie in another world." He looked up at Leo.

"The threat we face will require cooperation between beast and human. We cannot defend the continent alone. The Kings wish you to serve as a bridge between our kind and yours." Leo frowned.

"Me? Why me?"

"Because this one has watched you deal fairly with the cranes. You brought warning of the Corpse Eternal to Monarch Embercrown when silence would have cost you nothing." Lord Flockfeather paused.

"Trust is earned through action, young friend. Yours has been earned." He paused again.

"In exchange for accepting this commission, you would be granted access to a Tier Three spirit vein. The qi is yours to use as you see fit. Practice formations. Bring it back to your world. Sell it." Leo's pulse quickened. Free Tier Three qi. Mike, Arthur, and Kevin could use it to break through to Gold Core. He could use it too in the future. And most importantly, just as Flockfeather said, he could use it to draw formations back on Earth and sell them for money. He thought about his debt.

About the interest accumulating every hour. But he hesitated. Mike had been listening quietly. Now he stood up abruptly.

"Hang on a sec." He disappeared into his workshop in the basement of the hut. Leo and Lord Flockfeather exchanged glances. Mike emerged thirty seconds later carrying a rolled bundle of papers. He spread them across the table next to Lord Flockfeather's map. It was a detailed engineering drawing of a massive cannon, the size of a mountain.

"So I've been tinkering with something," Mike said.

"Spiritual artillery cannon. Originally I was thinking we could convert Human Hut Mountain into it." Lord Flockfeather glanced at Mike, looking alarmed.

"We wouldn't move forward without your blessing, of course. Just sketches right now." Mike tapped the drawings.

"But if Leo has access to a Tier Three vein, we could build it there instead. Run it off the vein directly. Scale the whole thing up." Leo stared at the drawings.

"Scale it up? Mike, this thing is already huge. The barrel is the size of my apartment."

"Well, yeah." Mike shrugged.

"Millions of zombie cultivators, Leo. I'd rather have a cannon that's too big than one that's too small." Leo couldn't argue with that logic. But he knew this wasn't a project that the five of them could accomplish alone. Mike's diagram was for a massive megaproject, one that would require thousands of cultivators to transport materials, set up, and build. They would need to find help. Leo thought about his contacts on the Azure Profound Continent.

The Shen family was an option, but the beasts would probably give them their own mountain to manage and their own role in the war effort. Then he thought about Zhang Wei. The Ammo Sect elder had worked well with his team over the past year. Leo had paid him in spiritual wheat to gather intelligence on the War of Western Unification. Zhang Wei had delivered consistently.

His information had helped the Shen Clan identify locations of special interest, including the Everlasting Empire ruins where Leo had found the Corpse Eternal. The man was reliable, experienced, and knew how to get things done.

"Alright. I'm in," Leo said to Lord Flockfeather.

"But I'm going to need help. There's a Gold Core elder named Zhang Wei from the Ammo Sect. I've worked with him before. Would the Kings have a problem with me hiring his sect to handle most of the construction?" Lord Flockfeather considered this for a moment.

"The Kings concern themselves with the outcome, not the method. How you build your cannon is your own affair." He rolled up his map and handed it to Leo.

"This one will inform the Kings of your decision. Your peak will be waiting when you are ready to claim it." The crane Lord turned and walked out of the hut. His form blurred, stretched, and within seconds the white crane climbed into the afternoon sky. Leo watched him disappear over the ridge.

"So," Mike said.

"Mountain cannon."

"Mountain cannon," Leo agreed. He had no idea how he was going to pull this off. But free Tier Three qi was free Tier Three qi, and thirty million dollars of debt... wait no... thirty one million dollars of debt wasn't going to go away on its own.