Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 73 - Part a

Sister Pangfua bid them to go on without her from the Water Cultivation Chamber. Core Disciple Shoi-ming was already purging the gore that had remained there with fire, but not without first retrieving the spatial rings of the cultivators Huifen had killed.

Sage Harnish’s ring would first be returned to Sect Masters Uilleam and Ginevra. Their son’s personal effects would first return to them before the ring would come to her.

Just being in the room caused Huifen to relive those last moments before she’d ripped Harnish’s water from his control. It hadn’t struck her then, but she now realized what the Divine Ice Phoenix had taught her through the vision it gifted her. She’d once completely depended upon her Heart of Ice technique. It had shielded her from emotion, but it was exactly that that had empowered her will. The phoenix hadn’t taught her to hate. That had been Jilpa’s lesson to teach. But the divine beast had shown her how to direct it.

She was only scratching the surface of what she had done. Emotion wasn’t a power in and of itself. Neither did reason nor will stand alone. It was only when the three agreed that they became exponentially stronger. Was that all?

Other than ice fairies that used emotion numbing techniques, did not all cultivators already do the same? Did that mean it was the Divine Ice Pheonix’s blood that had granted her this power? Or was it the vision she bestowed that had trained her to tap into a power she already had? Perhaps, her anger simply burned hotter than was common to most cultivators…

“What is it?” Chao asked reassuringly.

She realized she’d been standing there saying nothing. “Thank you.”

He arched his brow.

“For all the times you’ve challenged me when I was sure I was right.”

He grinned. “Then I must thank you for doing the same.”She gingerly returned his smile. Then she glanced back at what was left of the mess she had made during her battle. Blood was splattered all about in odd places since the ice had thawed and the created water had dissipated. Her mind returned to the battle.

“There’s so much I still don’t understand. About cultivation, people, myself…”

“Don’t worry. Your husband understands all things.”

She frowned. “It feels wrong to jest considering what happened here. What I did.”

The humor left his face. He mused. “I don’t think there’s a place we can flee to that this place won’t travel with us for the rest of our lives.”

How could she argue with that? She then looked at what was directly in front of them. The barrier over the entrance leading to the defensive array they’d defeated and the vault. “Shall we?”

He held out his arm and she took it.

***

Chao noticed that any trace of the defensive array he’d destroyed was gone. The ground where it had stood was now covered over and was seamless with the rest of the floor. As for Harnish’s array formations, there were stacks of broken tripod-shaped arrays against the walls. They were only the size of a fist and there were more than thirty of them.

“So many…” he mumbled.

Huifen patted his arm. “Look there,” she said, pointing to the hall leading to the stairs.

A few larger arrays were sitting at its entrance. They must have been the ones that had created the barrier blocking Pangfua’s escape.

“Greetings, Master. Mistress,” the spire’s artificial spirit said, appearing before the vault. It bowed to them in turn.

“Hello,” they both said.

“You’re here for entrance into the vault?”

Chao replied, “Yes, but first, we’d like to give you a name.”

“Oh?” The spirit’s ethereal form grew brighter.

His Huifen was encouraged by the spirit’s excitement and said, “We will call you Ji, because you have persisted for so long.”

“Ji is pleased,” the spirit said, bowing deeply. It arose, then stepped to the side. “Let me welcome Master and Mistress Long to the tower’s vault.”

Without any sound, the round door rolled into the wall to reveal a shimmering barrier. It was translucent, but much easier to notice than the barriers between rooms. Directly through the barrier, Chao thought he saw something that looked like a cauldron. He walked up to the gleaming energy and looked to Ji.

The spirit nodded that it was safe.

Stepping through, he entered a chamber as deep as the last room. It stretched to the right and away from the stairs. He had to take a few steps to see around the corner. It was easily the largest chamber on the floor.

Then he spotted what he’d seen through the barrier. It wasn’t just a cauldron. It looked to be made of a white jade-like stone and reached to the ceiling. It was a perfect sphere except for a wide base made of three legs that reached out like dragon feet. There seemed to be no opening on the top, but a door almost as wide as a person was tall was on its side.

“So many…” Huifen said, under her voice.

Only then did he look away from the giant cauldron to find it was encircled by many smaller ones. He counted a total of eight of them. There were nine in total if the large pearl white one. Chao remembered back to his visit to the ice phoenix pill refinery and their many cauldrons. Each one of these surpassed any he’d ever seen. That didn’t mean he knew by how much. He had no real way to grade them.

Seeing that they were both focused on the largest cauldron, Ji began to explain. “This is the Heavenly White Jade Cauldron. It is made of divine white jade and often forms on the closest planets to stars. It is unaffected by heats that would turn most metals into gas. It also has purifying properties which is why it’s used to compress heaven and earth qi into qi crystals.

Ji strode forward, pointing to the smaller cauldrons and naming them. “Each of these are specialty cauldrons. Though they can be used to refine materials and pills, they are made of materials that might be better for one type of material or another. Amateur refiners often split ingredients up into yin and yang, but they can be broken down into more detailed categories, and often should. Do you have an interest in pill refining?”

Chao turned to Huifen, but she was already giving him an insistent glare. Shaking her head, she addressed his obvious interest. “One day maybe, but we have many priorities we can’t neglect.”

He whimpered, but knew she was right.

“Tomes from many ancient sects are now in your possession,” Ji replied. “When the time is right, all you have to do is request them to get started.”

They thanked him before moving on. The cauldrons took up what he thought was most of the chamber, but he’d been wrong. This wing of the room wasn’t larger, but there was a set of shelves lining both walls. They reached to the ceiling and were covered by the shimmering barrier. As he got closer, he realized that each shelf had many partitions, and each had its own barrier that could be removed without having to disturb the other one. That was only the beginning.

Ji began to explain. “This is where the cultivation techniques, weapons, armor, apparel and the natural and heavenly treasures of the tower are stored.”

If this was all, it would’ve been a letdown. There was no way this small number of shelves held the prizes for the entire tower. Then, as if to answer his unasked question, the shelves began to move as if sinking into the ground. What replaced them were more shelves with new treasures from the floor above? He asked Ji if that was right.

“Yes, and no. The shelves exist in their own vertical plane that spans floors. The one against the outer wall reaches to the very top and goes to the subterrane level. The inner wall doesn’t ascend as high, but it also reaches the bottom level. It is there that the qi crystals are stored. They and the world’s qi are used as power by me to keep things running.”

“How much is there?” Huifen asked. “Of the natural, heavenly treasures, and qi crystals?”

“Most of the treasures I used to give as prizes have reached critical levels, so I no longer provide them. Of those there are only a few left. As for the qi crystals, I have excessive reserves since I have been doing little else besides refining more for the last few thousand years. If you want a number, I’m nearing a count of two trillion qi crystals. I use them as fuel, so that’s equivalent to a few hundred intergalactic voyages. I would’ve been able to do far better if the world’s energy remained at a higher level.”

“Then its true. The Divine Spire is also a transport vehicle. One that can traverse space?”

“It is as you say.”

“That’s incredible,” Chao said, dazed by the moving shelves. He tried to guess what some things were as they cycled. Very little of it he recognized. When he saw the first scroll, he almost asked Ji to stop, but then there was an entire row of card jades of a variety of colors followed by many more. There were more scrolls and an entire library of tomes that just flashed by.

He looked over to Huifen to find she was also staring at this trove of unlimited possibilities. Her nose was twitching at each shelf that passed as if counting them off. He didn’t interrupt her. They just stood there for the longest time taking everything in.

“Do you have anything on the laws?” he asked, not really expecting an answer.

“Of course, Master,” Ji said. The shelves slowly stopped before cycling upward in the opposite direction. “I’m afraid the selection is limited for someone with your capabilities. Xiahou Tzu, my most powerful master, was a water cultivator and mostly acquired manuals with a focus on that and compatible elements. I hope you can find something that will benefit you.”

“Expert Ji,” Huifen called. “Are you able to change the element in the Water Cultivation Chamber to ice?”

“That is well within my capabilities. Would you like me to do it now?”

She looked at Chao, and he reassured her.

“Yes, please,” she said.

“It will take a few minutes.”

“Thank you…”

The next look she gave him was one of disbelief. It was all too much. He understood for he was feeling the same way.

“Did you want to look through what is available on the laws?”

Chao just shook his head. “Uh, I’ll return to look through them later.”

“Very well. Did you want to visit the seventh floor?”

He chuckled. Once he started, it took him a long moment before he could stop. “Shall we?”

Huifen agreed.

---

Part b might be out later today. We're almost there.