Heaven's Laws - Prodigies - Chao's Law Arc

Here's Chao's element joining arc in a concise version so that the last 50,000 words don't have to be read all over again. :D

Note: Everything has been cleaned up and updated, so if you would prefer to read it in its entirety, it starts at the end of Chapter 72

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Time in the Training Construct and fighting side by side with his wife was some of the most intense training Chao had ever experienced, but in his mind it wasn’t enough. He would often tunnel to the roof and sit there while he continued experimenting with the Laws. He and his wife were getting a tiny amount of time with the Laws as it was, so Chao would often spend the time he should’ve been sleeping looking for the breakthrough with his Sound and Space Laws.

The two higher tier elements were so different, and yet in many ways they were similar. Space didn’t have mass and neither did Sound. They were invisible to the eye, but easy to observe. But it was one observation in particular that made him think he might be onto something.

He’d already unlocked Morph with Sound. When using it, he was able to add emotion to the Sound he was working with, even if that sound or song wasn’t usually able to bring about the same emotion. Why music even caused emotion was something he didn’t rightly understand, nor was he sure if he could. But then why was he able to change the emotion of a Sound so drastically? Space was the container and Sound was contained by it, but for some reason Sound seemed to be able to contain emotion in a similar way.

Space was the undercurrent that all matter and energy existed within. Without Space, they ceased to exist, and yet without matter or energy, there could be no Space. With his Space Laws, Chao couldn’t change that. When he Created Space, it possessed something inside it, but that something he couldn’t control. When he reverse Created it, it then contained nothing at all. He thought that because he could control the emotion contained in Sound, that the Space Morph Law might allow him to control what was inside his Space when he Created it.

He dared to imagine what it would be like to control what was inside his Created Space. It was even possible that he’d be able to place other elements inside it. A Space wall that burned with tribulation Fire on just one side or had the aura of tribulation Ice was among the first possibilities he thought of. His Space bend might also be able to contain Wind and could whisk him through quickly to greatly increase his movement abilities. He might even be able to hide within his Space barrier and feed the barrier Qi to have an Awakened element appear on the other side without ever opening a Space tunnel.

He tried to place things inside of Space in every way he could possibly imagine. Mimicking the way he did it with Sound was harder than he thought it would be.

So much of his time was spent trying to figure out how Sound could contain emotion. Was emotion naturally a part of Sound, or was Sound just the cause? Because he could manipulate it, there seemed to be reason to believe it was more than just the cause. It could be Morph that changed this very rule as well, but then he had to figure out how exactly it had changed.

There was much time he spent on pondering those same questions, but in the end there were no miracles, and he was left with more questions than answers. He tried to think of what had brought on his unlocking of the Sound Morph Law, but it hadn’t been the contemplation of deep questions. It had been his personal experience with Sound and the emotions those experiences brought. The closer he came to connecting emotion to what he heard, the more powerful his Morph Sound Law became. Soon, he was out of time.

***

The fight between Chao, Huifen and the Overlords after the Emperor gives them permission to kill Chao.

***

Relying on her perceptions was no longer enough and she began to scan the sky with growing dread. Time passed slowly until she was forced to think of the worst possible conclusion. What if her Chao actually died?

The tunnel disappeared from the world and Tengfei called out. “Look for where the boy was hiding. If he’s dead then his technique will fail, and he should fall from the sky if he isn’t better hidden someplace else.”

She knew the man was right, but either Chao’s Space barrier would also disappear, or if it already had, he’d placed himself out of the picture with the last of his strength to give her the freedom to act.

Huifen had trained herself to depend upon Heart of Ice during the harshest of trials, but when she stopped circulating it in that moment, it wasn’t because her emotions had gotten the better of her. She’d instead remembered how the Ice Phoenix had felt when facing the Worm of the Profane and its world ending attack. She wasn’t sure she was capable of the same level of hate, but she didn’t need to be a divine monarch to come close.

The wind began to churn up around her as her core began to spin at speeds she hadn’t touched upon since her breakthrough to the overlord realm. She looked upon those Sages closest to her as if they’d personally ripped her husband’s heart out of his chest.

The Emperor said something about there being no reason she too had to get hurt, but he didn’t understand. Glancing down at the Outer Sect one final time, she didn’t see anyone left in the streets, so perhaps some of them would survive.

She turned her attention to her inner world, but suddenly her fury had to be put on hold as the sky opened up in fiery hope, high many kilometers overhead. A crimson dragon as tall as the Ice Phoenix Palace flew out of a Space tunnel that was hundreds of meters wide. Its form was one of her husband’s design. The creature’s mouth cracked open as it gathered its strength. The dragon’s head was drawn back, coiling like a serpent reading to attack. It thrusted down from on high. With the intensity of an erupting volcano, Sound gushed out over the world and the entire world started to shake.

She’d known Chao had been working on something during his sleepless nights and the joining of elements was something he’d mentioned before, but such a success was not something he’d be willing to hide. Either she’d just witnessed the most perfectly executed sleight of hand, or Sound wasn’t coming from a separate source but Chao’s dragon itself.

Despite sensing its effects on the world, Huifen didn’t suffer beneath them. She could since emotion like that of her husband’s song, but she’d only heard him add such dark raw emotion one time before when she’d awoken after his father had started him on his last leg of training, and he’d left their bed. This time the agony wasn’t present, but the anger was even sharper than before as if it had been refined.

She then looked upon the Emperor’s countenance as it took all that he had to keep his eyes on the sky. The Sound was as forceful as a physical attack and even defensive auras seemed to be little help against it.

One of the Earth Sages cried out as he poured everything into his aura to try to combat the Sound. Few of the other Sages fared better.

Then as the dragon’s lungs seemed to deflate, there was a combative squeal. She turned in the direction of the ex-Sect Master Tengfei to find him with a Space tear covered spear pierced through his chest from behind. The normally affable old gentleman’s face was scrunched up in an ugly scowl as he stared at the weapon jutting out of him. Trying to grab at it to remove it by force, his hands fell upon the tear wrapped around either side of its blade and were severed near mid-palm. This time, her husband hadn’t missed.

As Tengfei brought his hands up in disbelief, the spear was twisted and yanked out from behind. As it was removed, the Space tunnel it had emerged from disappeared.

The dragon began to fall from the sky with the Sages in its sights. Its color changed to orange then swiftly to gold. Even as it neared and its size shrunk to take on overlord green, it was as large as her wedding chambers and its eyes turned over in its head like a maddened beast.

Huifen heard a whisper in her ear that was only for her. “Run,” her Chao barked. The heat searing off his voice. “Make it to a safe distance for Ice Phoenix’s Breath. I’ll kill who I can, but act like you’re trying to get away. I’ll try to chase them in your direction, and if that doesn’t work we’ll find a place to hide while we figure out what to do next.”

She was sure now that he’d seen the opportunity to deceive the enemy and took it. He had made the right choice, but his acting had worked too well, and she’d thought him gone as well. “Okay,” she said, hiding her own lingering anguish beneath Heart of Ice to show him she was still fully intending to fight. “But not without leaving a surprise of my own.”

She didn’t wait for a response but tried to use the moment of distraction to land a blow on the Emperor who had removed a two-handed jian from his spatial ring while struggling against the emotion-loaded Sound. With each roar, the dragon bombarded the entire area, and the Emperor was just one of the cultivators suffering under the attack.

He seemed to notice her coming, but she wasn’t about to stop. He finally decided it was time to kill her, for he slashed horizontally without holding back.

An Ice pillar shot up to meet the attack as she dived below him and began covering the world with Ice Shroud. The technique’s pillars rose up all around him even as he crushed them with each swing of his sword. It was enough to distract him from her real technique.

She didn’t stay to see her handiwork and shot into the distance as fast as she could fly.

The Emperor became free a moment later and was about to give chase when he discovered a whole garden of overlord Ice Lotus’s floating in the air not far from his head.

Their explosion was silent, but Huifen heard his shrill cry.

***

Huifen headed in the opposite direction of the joint sect, and Chao watched as the Ice Lotus’s that she’d left for the Emperor as they exploded in his face. The man covered his head as quickly as he could. It was a shame the assault didn’t kill him, but when he arose from the aftermath of her attack, he had bloody gashes all over his face, scalp, and neck.

Chao had assumed he’d have to try to chase the man to get him to go after her. Unexpectedly, the Emperor’s instincts that had put Chao and Huifen at a disadvantage while fighting near the defensive barrier were finally working in their favor as he chased after her on his own.

Seeing the turn of events helped to still the raging seas inside Chao’s chest. Much of what he was planning had gotten lost in his own grief when he saw his wife readying to attack with Ice Phoenix’s Breath.

With the ex-Fire Phoenix Sect Master dead, Chao was using the last half of his Qi to keep his overlord Fire dragon alive. It wasn’t as fast as Lightning, but the Nature Sage had already made the mistake to try to attack his dragon head on. It had simply let the man’s vine of thorns and its forceful Qi pass through its neck, and it then landed upon the Sage belly first, accepting him into its inferno.

Chao was glad to be rid of the man. He’d been listening when the Emperor gave the command to kill him, but even if he hadn’t, it was only a matter of time before one of them caught on and he’d been prepared to cap his Space tunnel from the entrance which was much faster than waiting for the exit to close. The rest he’d made up after he’d captured the man’s technique in his Space tunnel. As for the dragon, the remaining Sages weren’t Snow Fox dire beasts, but maybe scaring them was the right idea after all.

With only two Earth Sages left after the Nature Sage’s death and the Emperor running off, Chao Awakened dragon would do most of the work itself. The problem was that when the two decided to run, they ran in separate directions and nowhere near the direction that Huifen had gone.

Since it was no longer necessary to chase after the Emperor whom his wife desired to take care of herself, he issued the dragon one final command.

It wasn’t just a dragon of Fire. He’d just been looking to cause a distraction. The bigger the one he could manage the better. But then, as he was about to release his dragon which he’d taken nearly two minutes to form, he felt the mournful cry of Huifen’s hybrid Qi. Seeing her in that moment when she thought he had died, injured him more severely than if he’d accepted the Nature Sage’s attack head on.

Chao had tried countless times to add elements to Space in hopes of unlocking Morph, and he constantly practiced Sound’s Morph law to better understand it in hopes that it would help. But it wasn’t a new understanding of a higher tier element that had ultimately joined his Fire and Sound. He’d always had to play his pipa before adding emotion to his song, but this time his bleeding passion guided his Sound and injected it directly into his Fire dragon’s will.

His Sound empowered Fire dragon split in two. The two wagon sized-monsters represented half of the Qi of his sky realm cultivation. It was then that the twin dragons Enhanced a final time, and tribulation flame made up their lion sized bodies of gleaming blue.

They chased after the two Earth Sages while burning their own Enhanced Fire. His opponent’s Earth element wasn’t the best for speed. Even so, both Sages gave flight and weren’t about to be caught. But like living dragons with azure fang and claw, the Awakened beasts opened their mouths and Sounded out with a power that shouldn’t have belong to them. Their roars were just as effective separate as when they’d been joined into one, and the Sage’s auras as well as their speed shuddered and quaked.

One overlord was seized by the neck and he was dead before he could loose his last breath, and the remaining overlord was grasped by the hip. Like a mortal finding himself in the maw of a bear, he was shaken and underwent a great struggle before death welcomed him.

It was then that Chao’s first Singing Flame Dragon died out, and he wished it farewell.

As his attention turned to his wife’s dilemma, he saw the Emperor waving his sword like a wild man, throwing Fire crescents after her like a snake striking at a fleeing mouse. The only solace was that she’d soon be two kilometers out.

Chao wanted to rush to her rescue, but even if he tunneled close to them, all he’d be able to do was wrap himself in Space and stay out of the way. His presence would only delay what she would do next.

Scanning his own inner world, he saw that he had at most a quarter of his Qi left. He remained in his Space barrier and waited. If something went wrong he’d have to be ready.

***

Chao was approximately two kilometers away from his wife who’d just taken care of the emperor and surprisingly a tribulation realm cultivator. In all honesty, he’d expected the man to do better underneath her domain’s tribulation Ice. The Wind cultivator had been too new to his realm for it to make much of a difference.

He was still surrounded in Space and scanning the world through a Space tunnel while trying to catch his breath before joining his wife. Somehow he’d managed to join his Sound with his Fire dragon. At first he’d thought he’d succeeded in finally Awakening Sound, but that wasn’t entirely accurate. It was more like an extension of Morph, but that wasn’t right either. Instead, what he’d been trying to do with Space and join other elements to it, he managed to do with Sound... After he’d summoned his dragon, he hadn’t had to tell it to Sound out at his enemy. It had taken both Sound and his emotion as an abilities for itself. He still wasn’t exactly sure how he’d accomplished such a feat, but now that he knew it was possible he couldn’t wait to see what elements and Laws he could join together. If Sound could join with Fire, then his other elements should be possible. This broke a normal law of the heavens, so joining the higher tier elements wasn’t even out of the question.

He moved his hand as if to wipe away the Space barrier around him when he felt an extreme presence approaching with the weight of a falling planet. It was, coming right for him.

Chao scanned it the best he could and recognized it in part. Whoever it was had the aura of a Fire cultivator, but it was different than his father’s. If it wasn’t Zan and it wasn’t Quinyuan, then who?

There was one thing he couldn’t deny and that was that the person to whom the aura belonged was at least at the tribulation realm. Even if Chao were at his peak state he wouldn’t willingly face such a person unless he had no other choice. It was likely that whoever it was wasn’t coming for him at all, and just happened to be heading in his direction. If he remained hidden behind his Space barrier, he had nothing to worry about.

The unknown cultivator’s descent began to slow as if they were looking for something. When they found it, they suddenly surged toward it even faster than before.

The entire world seemed to change colors as he figured out the person’s bearing. His Huifen was standing in the midst of a thawing field with less Qi remaining than his own. This cultivator was heading for her and at a speed he’d never be able to match.

He reacted swiftly, dropping his connection to his Space barrier, and beginning to open up a tunnel to intercept this threat. He’d seen her face when she’d thought he had died and a renewed aching of in his chest seemed to take the lead as it dragged him into the Space tunnel before it had fully formed. It hadn’t even compressed and yet he was flying through it as it did, dodging the Space fabric that stirred like turbulent water.

His wife had just killed a tribulation realm cultivator, but his own cultivation was too low for him to know for sure if this person was limited to that realm. Even if they were, she’d only retained enough Qi for a splash of Ice at the most, let alone an entire domain.

As Chao crawled his way through the tunnel toward the exit he’d Created just above his wife’s location, he felt the encroaching Qi as if a flaming mountain were about to fall on her head. The cultivator didn’t slow their pace as they neared. This person was coming to take her, if not end her where she stood.

The threat hadn’t even arrived, but it felt like his insides were being drawn from his body. Time, even if it had seemingly slowed by the adrenaline pumping through his system, was also being plucked from his hand.

He had access to many tribulation elements, but no element would help him now. The force of the person’s approach was more than anything Chao could’ve mustered even if he summoned all his Qi at his peak state. The girl who had been so far out of his reach and yet chosen to become his wife was about to be taken from him once again.

The speed was too much for him to judge and the Space tunnel’s exit was still meters from his reach. Even as compressed Heaven and Earth Qi exploded from the meridians of his feet to propel him forward faster, he knew he would be too late.

His wife looked to him one last time as he stretched out his hand. The tunnel’s exit flew by him as he appeared in the air a few dozen meters overhead and off to the side, but she stood helpless and exhausted as the human meteor had finally come.

A Space tear could possibly kill the person if he could manage to place it in their path, but it wouldn’t stop their forward motion and his Huifen couldn’t possibly survive.

There was only one chance to save her, and it required something he’d never tried. As if wielding Create Space like a spear, he let the Heaven and Earth Qi gush out of him and with a still nonexistent wall of Space, he thrust. Space became his spear, and it was as wide as a one story wall. Instead of surrounding himself, the wall shot forward like an oncoming train. The only difference was that the Space didn’t move but formed and stretched like a pavilion over his wife’s head.

It looked like Chao would be successful when the person came to a sudden stop. He’d seen him during their first confrontation with the Emperor. The man before him was Prince Rong who’d ascended from the Fire Phoenix Sect.

The man ignored Chao and reached out his hand to feel the surface of the wall of Space. “I see,” the man said to himself before turning to look at Chao. “I appreciate your ability, but I don’t have the time. I’ll be taking the Sect Master’s disciple and if you try to stop me you’ll die.”

Rong moved as if he were going to go around the wall of Space. It had worked to stop him, but the forty meter long wall was no more than three meters high and any sky realm cultivator or above could find their way around it if they took there time to examine their surroundings carefully enough.

“Chao,” Huifen said with an appreciative tone.

He found her looking up at him with an easy smile. It was an expression that had long been foreign to her. One that he had helped her discover after years under the numbing effects of Heart of Ice. She looked so tired.

“Our Qi is too low to hide or fight back,” she said. “Let him take me and at least one of us will survive.”

“I am taking her hostage, nothing more,” the prince said to encourage that train of thought. “I’m already doing you a favor by not killing you after you killed my little brother.”

Chao didn’t waver. After what Rong had just said, he knew that if he did let the man take her he’d likely never see her again.

Qi, the precious little he had left, flew into the Space wall he’d already Created, and it began to expand. Its edges rounded and enclosed around the divine cultivator that targeting his wife.

The prince noticed something was happening, but he must’ve not been able to easily sense Space for he didn’t make any drastic moves. By the time he had the chance, he was already fully surrounded. The only exit Chao had left was the one that led straight through him.

“Chao,” Huifen said with a strange mix of question, plea, and command.

“You’ve chosen death?” Rong responded with lazy annoyance.

“Your brother took my Huifen’s virgin Yin. Your father in the end tried to take her for himself, and now you want to take her as well? Never again will Long Huifen be at the mercy of a man from the Sun family.”

“Fine.”

Chao’s greatest wish was that the divine cultivator would rush forward. At this distance, it would be impossible to miss with a Space tear. His perceptions and Qi were already extended, but as he felt the man’s aura explode outward, he knew his wish would not come true.

He had no real avenue for victory without also suffering loss himself. He could make use of tribulation Lightning or Ice to combat the man’s Fire, but at their current distance it would likely injure or kill him as readily as it did the prince himself. He always Created his techniques starting with sky realm elements and then used Awaken to slowly Enhance them to greater realms as they distanced themselves from him to keep himself safe. The tunnel of Space he had summoned would guarantee the worst possible result for all that energy would have no place to escape. At least he could likely guarantee his opponent’s death as well.

With the thought of trading his life for hers, Chao felt a strange sense of peace drape over him, but in the next instant he became enraged at himself. He wasn’t just fighting for their survival. He’d willingly give his life for her if there was no other choice, but to commit to self-sacrifice so quickly without even looking for another way was only to give up.

The prince gathered his Fire Qi far faster than any overlord could as he formed his technique sluggishly. Chao unable to combat the force his opponent could generate that would soon rush toward him. There was still one avenue left.

The hum in the air was turned up to the highest possible volume as tribulation vibrations reverberated throughout the tunnel.

Rong’s aura began to shake and faulter as the Sound reached the right tone, but Fire Qi wasn’t fire, so it wasn’t defused as flames might be.

Despite Chao shielding himself with a barrier of Sound, the rebounding effect from within the tunnel were too much and his sense of balance quickly wavered as he heard a giant pop. All that was left was a silent high pitched ringing.

He felt the blood begin to run from his ears as he watched the prince also finding it difficult to function. But even tribulation Sound was not enough. The man held a sword and Fire Qi started to gather into it.

If Chao used a tribulation element, it would likely kill them both. But even though the man wasn’t moving, Chao could still tear Space. Doing so to the Space a person was occupying was incredibly difficult. He’d done so to an overlord one time before after dying a few times in the Training Construct, but a tribulation and overlord body were at two different levels of toughness. The prince could also summon defensive Qi and make it even more difficult. But Chao was about to die.

He began his Space tear a hand’s breadth from Rong’s neck. Before the man could slash out, the tear reached the surface of his flesh.

The divine cultivator immediately dropped his technique and threw all the Qi he could into circulating his defensive aura. His eyes grew wide as his indifference from before disappeared. He clenched his teeth and the muscles in his neck drew taut like when stringing a bow.

Chao strained himself with maximum effort, but as soon as the man’s aura had ben drawn in to defend, the battle was already lost. He was already spent and was unsure how much longer he could last. There was no more use trying to tear through the man’s neck, so he stopped trying and only a small line of blood was left from his efforts.

The prince’s mouth moved as he refocused his Qi to end their fight. The tribulation Sound had only continued to build upon itself, and anything Huifen or the prince had said was impossible for Chao to hear. In the moment before his death, Chao focused on the vibrations that he was still trying to shield against. He’d been able to contain Fire in his Sound which should’ve been impossible. He remembered his mother and the magic of her music, or at least that’s how it had seemed in the eyes of a young boy. It was magic she’d shared with him at every available moment even until the day her spirit left this world. He’d always enjoyed playing with the elements, but it was her music that had tied them all together and given them more meaning than they should’ve ever had.

Blood streamed from his eyes as they widened in understanding. Even Awakened Fire wasn’t able to make use of another element’s Laws. Neither did it seem Space was capable of such a feat. Whether it was an extension of Sound’s Morph Law, or something different entirely, it was Sound that most closely tied him to the laws themselves because that’s where his mother’s memory dwelled.

The vibrations in the tunnel fell into silence. Even without his ears, he felt the connection thought he still had yet to understand.

He saw the prince laugh as the tremorous suppression stopped.

Chao called upon the measly amount of power he had left, and a wide blast of tribulation Sound swarm forward to meet the prince. Rong also slashed out and unleashed his crescent of divine Fire. At the right tone, Sound could’ve put out such flame, but the force was something his Sound alone couldn’t have stopped. But Chao’s Sound was not working alone. His own death was imminent and his Huifen would suffer if he failed. Of emotion he had no lack, and he poured it out with no need to hold anything back. Then as if it were the most natural thing, he offered a Space tear up and his Sound whisked it away.

Sound paraded forth to meet divine Fire’s might. With every ripple of Sound’s hum, Space tore. The tears were dismal and lightless but like a wall of daggers stacked to the ceiling. There was no escape from that Sound driven rupturing Space. It traveled at the speed of his mother’s song. It was slower than the prince’s divine Fire technique, but it held no fear. As it traveled, it arrived at the boundary of his tunnel and the tears and Create Space canceled each other out.

The Fire Phoenix Cultivation Tome’s Soaring Flame technique plummeted into the encroaching Sound that had been joined with the tear of Space. Where most Sound and Fire would normally pass each other by without a second’s interference, the Fire and its force came to an abrupt end.

Chao didn’t feel the reverberation of his Sound, for it escaped into the world as the Space tunnel he had Created was canceled out.

There were no screams as it reached the trapped Prince Rong, though Chao couldn’t hear to say for sure. As his Sound reached the end of the tunnel, what was left was dispersed into the world. Space no longer ripped and splintered once the tunnel was gone. The fractured Space was slow to heal, but once it had, Chao found nothing left. Prince Rong body had been unmade. Huifen appeared at his side, but he was deaf to her voice still, and it was only when she touched his blood covered face that he turned to see her.

She was blurry as was everything else. He brought his hand to his cheek and soon found blood flowing from his mouth, nose, and eyes to join with the blood of his ears. The only sense that seemed to be unbroken was his sense of feel. She held him and slowly guided him from the air to the ground.

Quinyuan arrived some time later. He couldn’t tell how long for his sense of time was impaired. She was speaking to him, and he tried to say something in returned but only managed to gurgle blood.

Someone handed him a jug and helped him drink. There was maybe a pill or two, or maybe even three. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever be right again, but his Huifen was there, and she held him. Someone began to wash the blood from his face. That was her too. His vision recovered not long after, but even as everything else was being set right, he could see, and touch, and even make discernable vibrations with his mouth, but the constant ringing in his ears wouldn’t leave him be.

***

The Ice Phoenix stroll through space in human form, coming to a rare pause as her farseeing spiritual eye watched the events on Lifestone unfolded. There wasn’t anything that escaped her gaze as she calculated the probability of innumerable possible futures. She focused on those that were most likely. This humble planet in the lower realm contained many promising seedlings and one overly ripe tree at the center of it all. This Long Zan would seek to turn her in their favor. Resources were always scarce, and she had millions of such seedlings to nurture in the hope they’d bear some kind of fruit that might be of benefit to her, but this man would no doubt ask to have them all.

Her white-blue irises flared with sovereign light as the corners of her mouth turned up at what she saw. A boy called upon the Heaven’s Laws more like a divine beast than human being, and the girl had executed a technique that belonged to only the Ice Phoenix herself with but single drop of her blood. Taking her next step she looked away and continue where she left off, but her countenance now held a visibly brighter glimmer of hope.