[QiB2] 33 — Awakening - II

An endless expanse of  darkness existed in front of Zhang. Where there should’ve been a ring of  light, held by a brilliant tree connecting him and Shi Lua, there was  now a burning stump, and the shattered remnants of his core as it had  split in two.

Gu and Qi swirled in endless swirls in front of Zhang, the two energies colliding and threatening to break his spirit apart.

Zhang looked at the turmoil in his spirit,  his cultivation on the brink of collapsing again. Yet, somehow, he felt  no worry, or fear.

“Sii!” Shi Lua exclaimed. Zhang  glanced back at the spirit. Her body burned in parts, embers eating  through her leaves. She was not spared from the tribulation either.

Yet, instead of any pain and anguish, he saw relief in her eyes. A sentiment he echoed. Their spirit finally felt free. Free of the false ties that had been imposed upon them, and liberated by the truth of the world.

Change was painful, and it was difficult. But  change brought new life, and growth. This was growth. A change in their  era of cultivation itself.

Zhang looked through his cracked spirit, and  burning tree, before walking up to it. The tree was blazing on fire,  branches aflame as they fell down, with more pieces of his spirit  cracking as his core splintered.

Gently, Zhang pressed a hand on the tree. The  fire burned him, and the pain permeated through his body. Zhang bore  through the pain. Slowly, gently, he let the shattered pieces of his  Core start to swirl around the tree. Once by one, the cracks of reality  within the dark began to move, Gu and Qi moving in a storm with him, Shi  Lua, and the tree at its centre.

“The other half. Accept.”

Zhang nodded, closing his eyes. He let the Gu  flood into the tree in front of him, the death soaking into the vast  stump as it ate through it. The aflame tree began to wither, cracking  and shattering, before soon, the flames died as well, leaving only ash.

Zhang felt the ash on his palm, the fistful  of gray dust that remained. Gently, he let it pour down into the  darkness, as the ash faded into nothingness. A void remained in his core  now, an expansive darkness waiting to be moulded. Zhang had been given a  path by Brother Jie. A path with great insights into the nature of  their world.

He had never once thought why they remained  on the earth below them. Or why things fell towards earth, and not into  the sky. That was merely the nature of the world. Not something to be  question.

But perhaps that had been his folly, for  there were great insights hidden within the workings of the Heaven and  Earth, and only those who tried to peer behind the obvious, and question  nature of reality itself can truly reach upon those truths.

But though Zhang had been given a great  insight, one that burned as brightly as the First Law within his spirit,  he had not yet truly grasped upon it.

He knew these words to be truth, but not why they were so.

Afterall, how could a feather and a rock fall  at the same speed? A feather was lighter, so it fell slowly, and a rock  was heavier, so it fell faster. That is why a feather floated on water,  but a rock would sink underneath.

But was that truly true?

Zhang reached out to one piece of his  shattered core, and began to mold it. The reality around him shifted, as  the shard of his core grew, forming a small world beneath his feet. He  reached out to another piece of reality, directing Gu and Qi to form a  rock in one hand, and a feather in another.

Closing his eyes, he let nothing else exist  in this void, just the rock and the feather, and the small world  underneath him. Then, together, he let the two drop. Zhang watched in  fascination as the feather dropped the same as the rock, instead of  fluttering like it should’ve.

He picked the two up again, trying once more,  and the same happened once more. A piece of reality cemented itself in  his mind, as he looked at his feet, and then with a kick, jumped.

His push took him high up above, far from the  floating rock underneath him, but slowly, eventually, he stopped, and  began to return back down, moving faster and faster as time passed. But  instead of returning straight down, Zhang pushed himself sideways, and  propelled himself around the little rock floating in the darkness.

As the motion carried him, he found the pull making him orbit around the piece of rock instead. Like a moon.

He felt himself move, felt the pull on his  body, the curving of his path as the piece of reality he had created  drew him in with the force of worlds, and planets. Moving around the  rock, Zhang eventually stopped with the force of his own spirit.  Standing in the void, he looked into the darkness.

Just how much vaster could all of this be? Just how much was hidden within the world?

A desire bud in his hear, and Zhang began to gather the pieces of his shattered core.

The ring of Qi flowed towards Zhang, and he  let it gather in a small ball. Then, pulling the Gu flowing in his core,  he let it gather as well, forming a second ball.

Zhang let the two flow outwards, circling one  another, as they attracted each other. The glowing balls of energy  spun, faster and faster and faster, as the darkness of his core rippled  from the pulses of energy they let out.

Then, in a bright flash, the two collided, turning everything white, momentarily.

Zhang saw the light flash in his eyes, saw the energy it poured out, and found an Art carve itself in his spirit.

“Gravity Art: Birth of a Star.”

Reality changed, as the Gu and Qi mingled,  and a star of Chi was formed at Zhang’s core. The void expanded, as the  star grew in size, glowing a brilliant white glow, as it drew everything  around it into its orbit.

Zhang reached out to every piece of his core, as he meticulously began to form pieces of reality.

A ring of Chi swirled around the star,  forming the first orbit. Comets, planets, moons, asteroids. Time passed  without any rhythm or meaning. To Zhang, the moment was both eternal,  yet infinitely small.

And as he was done, he watched a solar  system, walking upon the paths of celestial orbits swirling in his core,  around the single star that burned brightly within him, imposing the  mark of his new Path.

Zhang felt his spirit grow, as he crossed  over into the fourth realm. Yet… this was no realm. Realms had lost  meaning when Zhang had begun upon this path. All there was, were the  five markers to the end of his path.

The five rings that would hold his spirit together. Like gravity held the stars together.

That was the truth of the world.

The truth of his Path.

With his insight carved upon his dantian in a  form more permanent than his existence itself, Zhang let the energies  in his dantian settle.

And then gently, he opened his eyes.