DAO 14

Feng Wen landed like an arrow shot from a bow. He hit the ground on two feet and one fist, kneeling before me. I tilted my head back, hands behind my back, and reached out for my skill. It was like plucking a string. The System felt all the same since my return.

[Wen of the North Wind, Darkwind Scion Path Cultivator, ??? Realm Cultivator]

I flinched.

If Wen was a completely different person from who he had told me he was all these years, how much did that change between us?

“Young Master Feng!” Wen said, crossing the distance between us in a heart beat. He ripped my hand out from behind my back and began to inspect me. The guard I had accidentally dragged with me between worlds — Stef — flinched at Wen’s speed.

I pulled my arm from his grasp gently. He was a higher realm than me. But I suspected there was even more to it than that.

Feng Fang ran at full speed, still far behind Wen. I cast [Identify] across the town square.

[Feng Fang, Qi Condensation Realm Cultivator]

I could see Fang’s cultivation, but not Wen’s.

“Stef…” I said, turning to the guard. “How far beyond someone in levels do you have to be before identify stops working?”

“Fifty levels, of course.” Stef said. He opened his mouth to continue, but I made him pause by raising a hand. He had a tendency to be long winded.

Was fifty levels the equivalent of two large realms? It was possible.

“You… what language was that, young master?” Wen asked. He looked puzzled. Fang stared at me in horror.

“The only language I speak.” I said, frowning.

“That wasn’t any language I’ve ever heard you spike.” Fang said. He looked the guard up and down. “You don’t seem like you came from the desert.”

“I’m afraid I dragged him from very far away.” I turned and looked at Stef. He wasn’t speaking the same language as the rest of them? Was the System translating? I had thought that I was within an illusory formation; I had never once questioned the language. “How has everything been in my absence?”

I scratched my face. I was growing stubble. Wen’s eyes locked onto that.

“Young Master… may I ask how long it’s been from your perspective?”

“I’ve been away three days.” I said, raising an eyebrow. The cold night air hung heavy over all of us.

Fang and Wen looked between each other.

“It’s only been three hours!” Fang said.

I glanced at Stef. He was all the proof I needed that the place I had been was a real world.

“It’s been three days from my perspective.” I said. “Gather the city council. Activate the privacy formation around the chamber.”

“Yes, Young Master.” Wen said. The ear shifted as he prepared his movement technique to blink away.

“Wait.” I said. 

“Yes?” Wen paused.

“Are the… estates… you wanted us to create operational?”

Wen’s eyes jumped between me and Stef.

“Are you guys talking? What is this?” Stef asked.

“The prisons that you insisted be built as palaces. Yes. They are. Though the security is rather… lack luster.”

“Fang, can you take Stef here to them?” I asked. Fang nodded, and I put a hand on Stef’s shoulder.

“Stef, you’ll be going with Fang here. We have some temporary housing you can use while we work on… finding you a job. And we can get you back to your continent… eventually.”

My eyes flicked to the prompt that was hovering in my vision. I didn’t want to dismiss it yet.

[World Gate Recharging. Time Until Ready: 30 days]

It took an hour to gather the whole city council inside of the meeting chamber we had constructed. Everyone was awake — Sandgrave was a city that moved in the night. The oppressive heat of the day time was pushing us towards building infrastructure buried in the ground. The entire city was already lowered several feet below the level of the sand outside it’s walls.

After discovering the ruins beneath sand grave and the extensive spirit stone mines around it, the city had flourished, providing ample trade to bring others in. I had moved for several of the mortal scholar academies to build universities here, in exchange for funding. The heads of my city council were eminent mortal scholars. They took some time for both them and their aids to come and sit at the tables, old bodies and creaking bones resting in their seats one at a time.

Eschewing tradition, I served no food or alcohol. The severity of the event was communicated through the bleak quiet that dominated the room. The town’s meeting hall was opened to the starry sky above, only the now-powered formation around it separating sound from out of the chamber.

The chamber was seated according to rank — my seat far above the mortals below. It was a tradition I hoped to eschew, but my mortal retainers themselves opposed it. The strict regimens of rank so built into a society were not easy to unshackle.

“We must cut off access to the ruin below — ” I said briefly after all had been sitting.

The room erupted in noise — shouts of alarm, surprise, and objections. This was the only place in the whole of the Feng Dynasty’s empire that it was safe to speak so brashly against a member of the Feng family. Even my outer cousins would see mortals executed for these words.

I raised a hand.

“Without the presence of a cultivator.”

The room grew quieter.

“Young Master Feng, apologies for my rudeness.” One of the youngest scholars in the room stood and bowed. I scanned her from top to bottom.

[Feng Yan Shi, Level 0, Mortal]

She wore the green robes of the geologist school that helped uncover this ruin.

“Be at ease. Speak.” I said.

Yan Shi wore a concerned look on her face.

“Our work on the ruin is incomplete, and our work there is never ending — requiring a cultivator will slow our work. Our scholars are well aware of the risks of exploring ancient ruins and are trained to recognize and avoid the most obvious formations. We have explored many legacy’s across the continent over the years. I think that a total ban is unnecessary.”

“I understand.” I said, pausing. “I’ll send for more retainers from the guard to instead assist you in your efforts.”

“Young Master Feng…” Another scholar said, standing. “If you pull from the guard, will we be prepared for any spirit beast hordes?”

“Sandgrave has never experienced a spirit-beast horde in the years its stood.” Yan Shi said.

I sighed. The land around Sandgrave for miles was completely dead — there was no opportunity for any spirit-beast to come to power in it. The ambient qi above the city seemed to simply disappear as it approached the ruins, though we still weren’t sure of the reason.

I now suspected that the ruin — and potentially the spirit veins themselves — were actually parts of a formation of unimaginable scale. One great enough to open the way between worlds — a feat accomplishment only by Demi-Gods and Divine Realm cultivators, like the Matriarch’s of the Grim Tempest itself.

The meeting went on for some time with the heads of the schools that had been crammed into Sandgrave raising concerns and me answering them. I assigned additional guards to patrol the Precursor Ruin buried beneath the city and ordered them to accelerate checking every room.

I wanted to make sure nothing got out, or, even worse, that there were no other lost legacies waiting buried under the sand. If the System could spread to others, it could turn society on its head.

I froze when the thought crossed my mind. Would it even be a bad thing? To close the bridge between mortals and cultivators with nothing more than a little effort?

It was a thought for tomorrow. Today, the sun was rising over Sandgrave. The council meeting dispersed, heading out to their individual houses, and I retreated into the palace that had been built for me. I had long since waved away excess, but the palace was a sign of my rank and of the wealth that Sandgrave had accumulated.

The outside of the palace was the color of sand, the texture worn by wind and sandstorms. The door swung open to a room of white and blue tiles lit by qi-fueled lamps. The Feng retainer guards at the door saluted me as I passed through the first room, discarding my shoes and stepping onto the warm hardwood floor with a groan.

The wood was collected from fire-qi aligned elemental trees. Their very nature constantly recycled the ambient qi into a small warmth. I untied my hair, letting it flow free behind my back as I trudged through the massive foyer for welcoming guests. One of my butlers saluted me.

“Shall I pour tea, Young Master?”

“Not tonight.” I replied. “I’m heading to bed.”

“Your bath has been prepared. Should I drain it?”

I stopped, staring over at the attendant. The memory of Anna begging for hot water flickered in my mind. I hoped they were safe at Spearpoint. But I had only been gone three hours.

Had it been two days now, in that world?

It was almost enough to question if it was real. Crossing worlds was one thing — manipulating the flow of time was another.

I sunk into my bath. It was the size of a pool, the water scaldingly hot. Incense filled the room with the scent of flowers. And as I reclined into the water, I did something I had been putting off for hours.

“System.” I said, whispering to myself.

[Congrats on surviving your first Raid, enemy of worlds!]

[Gains: 120 Comprehension points]

[Ludus Arbor Subversion: 100%]

[Total Routes Opened: 1]

[Open additional routes to gain progress towards Felling]

[Ordained Fate of the Savage Expanse by the Divines of the Ludus Arbor has been unmoored. Warning: The Divines may become aware of Anti-Light activity if Fate is moved too far off balance.]

[Major Imbalance in Fate detected: House of Vascara, side family of a world spanning dynasty, is destined to collapse.]

[Poppy Vascara, Herald of the New Dawn has changed titles. Poppy Vascara, The Void Shattering Fist, is now destined to end the nation of Illyria.]

[Warning: Your cultivation path is incompatible with your spirit root. Reaching the Second Realm with your cultivation path will permanently hamper your foundation.]

[View recommended action now?]

The barrage of information finally paused. The system still hadn’t opened my own status — the only part I was looking for. Was Poppy okay? The system was talking rapidly, barraging me with information.

It called me an enemy of worlds. It told me the direction of Poppy’s future. And it told me that the gods themselves were likely to become aware of me. I groaned and slipped farther into the bath.

I wanted to ask Wen, but I wasn’t sure that I should. He had confided much in me over the years; but he had not confided that he was an agent of the Grim Tempest.

“View recommended action.”

[Recommended action: Spend comprehension points in the DAO system shop.]

[Recommended items highlighted.]

A barrage of system prompts appeared before me, many of them ludicrous, but they dismissed themselves just as quickly, leaving just a handful remaining.

[Spirit Root Alteration Token: 1000 Comprehension Points][Recommended]

[This item can change the cultivation roots of the user or a target within touch range, changing their base elemental affinity.]

That wasn’t happening. I only received 120 Comprehension points — it seemed like I gained ten for every level, for now.

Besides that, I didn’t trust this thing at all to manipulate my spirit-roots. Changing someones spirit-root sounded outright impossible. My eyes fell to the next option.

[Cultivation Technique Token: 50 Comprehension Points][Recommended]

[This item will reveal a cultivation technique compatible with the user. Can be used on self or a target at touch range.]

I had spent years mastering the Feng Family’s — the Grim Tempest’s cultivation technique. I would have to spend years again to approach the same mastery with a new cultivation technique. Not to mention that the grade of a technique could be different — this system didn’t mention anything about what grade of cultivation technique it would create.

[Cultivation Technique Alteration Token: 100 Comprehension Points][Recommended]

[This item will alter a cultivation technique to make it compatible with the user’s element. This item will convert Three Major Realms. Additional tokens will be necessary for further progression.]