[MA] 261. Shen-Wisp (Patreon)

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[Chapters this week: 2/3

Next release: Saturday]

That tiny wisp of consciousness had one goal only: survival. However, it barely had the tools to accomplish it. It could think and feel, but slowly and almost dumbly. Its control over the vessel and its qi was limited at best.

Shen-wisp recalled that having too many Laws in the Harmonization Tribulation made it more dangerous. Now, he knew why.

Seven different parts of Shen tried to kill him in different ways, and his body and soul instinctively defended themselves with his qi. However, instincts weren't known for being tactical masters. His instinct struggled to counter distinct types of damage at the same time.

However, Shen-wisp also recalled that facing the tribulation would be more difficult if he didn't evolve all Concepts into Laws the first time. He also learned why. In that diversity, there was a greater chance for dissension.

Indeed, True Boundlessness suddenly found itself hating being part of the tribulation. It realized it was being used for another Will's purpose, the Heavenly Tributation's. Being limited to be part of the vessel hurt True Boundlessness's very existence, yet destroying the vessel was much worse.

It was Boundlessness, not destruction.

The vessel should be expanded, not cease to exist. True Boundlessness was already part of the vessel's Image and couldn't bear to destroy itself. Such action belonged to another way, another Path, another Law. It was the road to non-existence.

Yet, True Boundlessness didn't give in to Shen-wisp just like that. It just stopped destroying him. In time, it would likely also change its mind and start hurting him again. He was learning that True Boundlessness's inability to be precisely defined made it pretty fickle.

But that opening was all he needed to do something he couldn't do with the other Laws: make his case.

Through the pain of having his body and soul shredded, Shen shared himself with True Boundless. His Path, hopes, and dreams. His morals, past, and goals. More than all, he shared his closeness to it.

Boundlessness had been the origin of his Path. True Boundlessness was its evolution in the most Boundless way he could conceive. Shen hadn't accepted it to be defined by the Spear, so he took it in a Boundless direction. Clearly, there was True Boundlessness out there, though he didn't know if it was a Law, a stronger Concept, or an illusion caused by the tribulation. All he knew was that he and it fit together.

Shen sought to be Truly Boundless, too. They should become allies rather than enemies. Neither of the seven Laws could turn his existence into their exclusive Image, for his Image already contained every one of them. But if True Boundlessness accepted him, he could partly become its agent in Reality. He could advance its "agenda" into all of existence.

The Law wasn't satisfied with that. It twisted, ready to help destroy him. It was changing its "mind" again.

But Shen had a winning argument.

If it accepted to be partially him, it would achieve a much greater completion of its existence. Limited he might be, but through him, True Boundlessness could be two things simultaneously: whatever it was—probably a weird Law—and a human being. By Harmonizing with him, it would become more than it could ever be without him or someone like him.

Shen would make it Truly go beyond its own existential Boundaries.

It hesitated, doubted, and resisted. But in the end, his words rang too true.

True Boundlessness stopped pushing through the link. It pulled that part of his mind again. Reality didn't stop it this time.

One-seventh of Shen's mind connected with the grand secrets of the cosmos. He was here and everywhere at the same time, himself and everything that existed at once, Reality in all its glory and more, for it pushed beyond.

Unlike when he mastered a Concept, he wasn't given any special knowledge. He was simply shown what it was to be True Boundlessness itself. There was no structured teaching, no order to the chaos of images and feelings.

He would gain insights, of course, but this was also partly why having fewer Concepts in a Path was considered optimal. Only one-seventh of his mind was there. His gains would be limited.

The link between man and Law became bidirectional. While part of Shen became True Boundlessness in places and ways he didn't even have words to describe, his tiny wisp of consciousness was strengthened.

Only about thirty percent of his body and soul remained, and now, they became the Law True Boundlessness incarnate. Shen's Idealized Path, now adequately filled with the True Boundlesness it had been ready to accept, flared in every cell and bit of his existence. It protected itself.

It expanded.

Powered by True Boundlessness itself, his qi became stronger. It started healing him beyond what it had ever been capable of. It already hated being limited to a vessel but being further diminished through disintegration was worse. It would never accept that.

Five of his remaining six Laws resented that. Gentle Breeze, Stream, and Conductivity hated to be stopped. Extremity felt lacking because the flash it had pierced was being unmade. And a Killing Weapon that couldn't kill wasn't a Killing Weapon.

But Shaft didn't mind as much. Like True Boundlessness had done first, it noticed it wasn't behaving like itself. Unlike True Boundlessness, it only achieved that when it saw Shen's Image being filled with one Law but lacking all others that should be there.

It lacked stability and support.

A Shaft was precisely that: a Spear's pillar of support. That was crucial to its identity. Its desire to turn the entire vessel into a support pillar didn't make sense because a support pillar existed to support something. If everything was the Shaft, there would be no space for the rest of the Spear. Not even for the Extremity, so close to it, or the Killing Weapon that it wanted to become a part of.

The vessel already wanted to make it a central part of itself. Part of its core on which everything depended. A core that was the Spear. The Shaft belonged there. And already, it would have a Law to support: that freedom one.

Shen didn't have to argue his case this time. Shaft harmonized itself with him on its own. All it took was for it to identify more with his Idealized Path's Image than its actions in the tribulation.

Another seventh of his mind was elevated into the cosmos. It became the solid shaft of all materials in all Spears. It was stable and flexible, unbending and brittle, strong and weak. Its composition didn't matter, only that it was itself. Strong or frail, it would support the entirety of a Spear to the end of its existence.

Again, Shen's tiny consciousness benefitted. That stability and willingness to see things through to the end bled into his body and soul. It held against the constant attacks of the other five Laws.

And being a Shaft, Shen found he could now communicate with Extremity.

It wasn't even a hard argument to make. That Extremity was currently lacking a Shaft. It couldn't become a Spear in all its glory. It was crippled, and Shen understood about being a cripple. He resented that. If Extremity Harmonized with him, it would be whole again, and he vowed to never let that be the case.

A seventh of his mind became Extremity. He was the absolute Extreme point of infinity in the most perfect of Spears. He was the dull Extremity in the crudest of Spears. He was Extremity in all forms right at the tip of the weapon it belonged to.

That Extremity let him heal even faster, pushing his damaged self to the Extreme of wholeness. It also let him communicate with Killing Weapon.

Shen first tried to gain its trust through similarity. He was already the Shaft and Extremity of a Spear. The Law of Killing Weapon should join him and improve him further.

However, Killing Weapon didn't care. It was a Weapon made to Kill. It would fulfill its purpose or cease to be while trying.

Shen-wisp noticed that the whispers of thoughts he felt from the Law were "cease to be while trying," not "die trying." Cessation and death were similar but different enough that he could use that.

He told Killing Weapon that it couldn't wholly kill him. It would kill his body and soul, but not the True Boundlessness, Shaft, and Extremity that were already part of him. They would keep existing as Laws that Killing Weapon couldn't touch.

The Law argued that it was still a kill. Shen-wisp mentally smiled. That's the answer he had been looking for.

He replied that, indeed, it was a kill. One single kill. He opened his Path and past to the Law, sharing his desire to kill his enemies and the multiple ways he knew how to kill with a Spear. By becoming part of him, it could accomplish its purpose in much greater quantity and arguably in higher quality. He would use the Killing Weapon part of himself to deliver death to his many enemies in multiple ways.

It was tempted, and he repeated his opening: by joining him, it could hone his Path into something that would make the Spear at his core the most perfect Killing Weapon of all time.

That made it. One-seventh of his mind became a Spear used to Kill all things, from bacteria to star-sized dragons, from beautiful to ugly things, from fair beings to the worst criminals. He only killed. The reasons didn't matter. The wielder and target didn't matter. All that mattered was to fulfill his purpose of being a Killing Weapon.

That strengthened his tiny consciousness further, and this time, it fought back against the Laws battering his body and soul.

He was a Killing Weapon. He kept using Extremity to heal him but also used it for what it's supposed to in his Path: create holes into things. He pulled Shaft as support and used his True Boundlessness to extend himself beyond his physical limits.

True Boundlessness didn't struggle with that. His qi could move freely beyond his body now. Millions of Extremely sharp Killing Weapons with solid Shafts, made of his Idealized and strengthened qi, appeared all around him, striking at the incoming elements and Laws with abandon.

Crude wooden Spears were still attacking him from all sides and were easily destroyed. The Wind blew between his cells to unmake him, and he easily destroyed the air molecules using his Spear. Streams pulled the Water from his body while also trying to drown him, and he destroyed it all with multiple blows. When Lightning came, it met the one thing that resisted nature more than any other: a cultivator.

That was just the physical part of the tribulation, but dealing with it was enough for his body to regenerate faster.

Meanwhile, part of the body attack and most of the soul attack continued. Three Laws tried to make all of him exclusively in their Image and, in failing, destroyed him.

Shen felt he could strongarm the remaining Laws into his Path, but he guessed doing so would mean not getting pulled into the cosmos for those Laws. He was undergoing the Harmonization Tribulation, not a subduing tribulation or anything of the kind.

And indeed, it was a tribulation.

The moment Shen-wisp wondered if he could keep going forever until he Harmonized with all Laws, the skies opened up, and seven enormous spears started slowly descending. They were made of lightning and surrounded by cutting wind and water streams. They looked like copies of his tribulation in the tutorial's last stage, but much, much stronger. They were powered by Laws, not Concepts.

Shen refused to give in just like that. He was sure he could get at least Gentle Breeze to cooperate before the Heavenly Spears got to him.

He tricked Gentle Breeze into listening to him. He had just removed the water from his lungs with his qi counter-attack and now let Gentle Breeze in. He accompanied it as it turned into the gentlest of winds, oxygen moving through his bloodstream. Then, it turned into carbon dioxide that he exhaled into another Gentle Breeze.

Naturally letting the Wind integrate into his body startled Gentle Breeze, and he used the opportunity to share himself with it. He showed and said it was already part of him. Part of his biology and of his every movement. Part of his kind memories of a subtle wind refreshing him in a hot summer.

There was no reason to fight. They should Harmonize instead. They belonged together.

Gentle Breeze felt almost timid and agreed with him.

Once more, part of his mind was elevated. He became a Gentle comic Breeze blowing stars and a Gentle ant-sized Breeze inside an anthill. It could be considered brutal, depending on the perspective, but only his own mattered. When he decided he was being Gentle, it sufficed.

Shen wouldn't be able to exploit that. He had clear thoughts of what was a Gentle Breeze. If it destroyed an enemy, it wouldn't be gentle at all.

But that didn't matter much. What mattered was the refreshing feeling as the new power was pulled into his body. His taunt muscles loosened, and his qi absorption rate increased. He breathed better, and his body used oxygen much more efficiently. More importantly, it meant the Law of Gentle Breeze wasn't trying to unmake him anymore.

The seven Heavenly Spears kept getting closer. They were already midway through to him.

Stream and Conductivity remained. Shen understood Conductivity the least and decided to give Stream a shot first.

He opened his skin up in a spot and let a Stream of water, little more than a tiny string, into his veins. It hurt a lot, but he could deal with it. He let the Stream be part of his circulatory system, get into his heart and brain, and flow into all he was.

It closely became part of his biological life, even more than Gentle Breeze had.

All the while, Shen kept sending thoughts and impressions at it. He said he was already part of the Stream, and that Stream should accept it was part of him. In his initial enlightenment about Stream, he had noticed how all Water was connected and Streaming together, even if it didn't look like it to the ignorant. To refuse him was to refuse itself.

It wasn't as easy to convince Stream as Gentle Breeze had, but its resistance was slowly eroded. Shen's tactic was just too good; it was already inside him. There was no reason to keep refusing to acknowledge that.

The final push came when he pointed out that Harmonizing with him would make the Law of Stream move further into the pathway that was his Path's Image. It spoke too deeply with everything that Stream was. It gave in.

The sixth seventh of Shen's mind became the calm Stream inside some lifeforms and the angry Streams in dangerous rivers that brought death. It was constant. It kept going. Those caught in it should only flow with it. That was the natural course of things.

Shen's blood started pumping harder, further improving his regenerative abilities. His movements became more fluid, also assisted by Gentle Breeze. His entire self and Path became a Stream running as one in one direction.

The Heavenly Spears were a few yards away from him, but instead of preparing for them, Shen opened his body to Lightning.

He wanted to take it all.

The bolts traveled everywhere they wanted. He made himself as Conductive as possible. There was little resistance, and the damage that little resistance created was swiftly healed.

Shen helped Conductivity get to his brain and make a mess of his thoughts. He pulled it into his nervous system and showed how he was the very embodiment of Conductivity. Lightning was fundamental to biological life. Conductivity was already part—

Before he could finish his argument, the Law went through the path of least resistance, acceptance, and became one with him.

The last part of his mind was elevated. He became a Lightning bolt running through the skies and a tiny electric charge with barely enough voltage to go through a bronze wire. He went everywhere he could. He was meant to keep going forever.

Meanwhile, in his body and soul, the lack of a Law trying to destroy him and the added power of Conductivity pushed his healing the extra mile. Half of Shen's soul and a little less of his body remained to be healed, but now, everything instantly grew anew.

He was the perfect, whole, and filled vessel for his Path.

However, the Heavenly Spears were coming, and that tiny wisp of consciousness couldn't handle it. Shen-wisp was too limited. He couldn't fight; the qi spears he had created were the most he could do.

To make matters worse, Reality suddenly made Shen aware that he had to take the Heavenly Spears into himself and make them part of himself. He couldn't resist or fight them, or else Reality would strike with enough power to severely damage a peak Ethereal Harmonization realm cultivator.

Shen could try to survive it, but did he dare to?

He didn't.

No matter how special Shen thought himself, he couldn't resist an attack meant to severely injure a peak Ethereal Harmonization realm cultivator.

He would need to pull his mind back from the cosmos to Harmonize himself with the incoming spears. Shen-wisp was too limited. He needed whatever insights those other parts of his mind were gaining.

Shen-wisp also concluded he should pull back sooner rather than later. The first part of the tribulation, the storm, could be used to increase his chance against the Heavenly Spears. Physical wind, water, lightning, and spears were still battering his body, though his qi protected him well and whatever got past his defense was instantly healed. He could take those elements into his body and absorb them as training for when the Heavenly Spears struck. It wouldn't be the same, of course, but it was the best strategy Shen-wisp could form.

So he pulled the entirety of his mind back into himself.

Shen-wisp instantly expanded to encompass all he had glimpsed from all seven Laws. The insights seamlessly merged with him because they were already part of him, his Image, his Idealized Path, his very metaphysical construct. Simultaneously, the tribulation completely released what it was still blocking of his Will, letting his entire sense of self fully integrate with the rest.

And so, Shen opened his whole body to the elements around him as he had just made to Conductivity.

The Laws contained in the winds, water, lightning bolts, and spears greedily tried to take over him. It was a replay of what they had already gone through, but this time, he didn't need to convince them. He directly absorbed them.

The process was painful. It hurt Shen's body again, but not his soul.

The Gentle Breeze that inflated and blew his cells up was broken into physical energy, turned into metaphysical qi, and pulled into his dantian to become fuel for his defense. So was the Stream trying to pull him away from himself, the bolts ravaging his flesh, and even the wooden spears piercing him. True Boundlessness was everywhere, trying to harmfully blow him up like the Gentle Breeze did to his cells, but he resisted it.

Preventing more damage than he could take took absurd amounts of qi. Without Qi Saturation, he would indeed be unable to survive, no matter how well everything else might've gone. All that qi running through his body would've exploded him.

Shen had to precisely control how much qi he used to protect himself and how much he used to turn matter into qi so that the balance became a net positive. If he didn't, he would die as soon as he ran out of qi.

Unexpectedly, the heavenly spears paused while he consumed the first part of the tribulation. He regretted not waiting for the last moment to do that, thus letting parts of his mind be his Laws for a while longer, but there was no crying over the spilled milk. That wisp of consciousness had done its best.

Shen absorbed the elements for days. He progressively became better at it while also reflecting on everything he had experienced while being his Laws. Practice and comprehension improved each other in an incredibly beneficial feedback loop.

Eventually, he was no longer damaged while taking everything in and making it all his. He also got much faster at it. The entire storm that had seemed endless dwindled as he consumed it. In a few minutes, only the animals, plants, rocks, and earth he hadn't consumed would remain.

Then, the last part of the tribulation would come.

Shen stared at the Heavenly Spears a few yards away from him. Unlike what he was doing, taking each element separately, he could feel that he would have to become one with all seven Laws all at once when the spears struck.

He also realized that that's how Yinhu Lanfen could control Lightning without spending qi. Lightning was part of her as it would become of him, together with Water, Wind, and the Spear—and maybe whatever strange set of Laws that True Boundlessness might or not come from. Or he would die.

The last bit of the first part of the tribulation was consumed.

Shen threw his spear and spatial ring away and opened his arms to welcome them into himself.

The tip of all seven spears reached him at the same time.

What little remained of the island he had been in and the ocean around evaporated due to sheer pressure. Shen's mind turned into all seven Laws of his Path at once. Not like the first part of the tribulation when each fought food supremacy. Also, not like when his mind was split into seven. No, everything he was became one with all seven Laws.

They were disorganized, chaotic. They didn't battle each other but were confused and lashing out at him.

Yet, Shen was astonished by the fact that he had no trouble at all in swiftly and easily turning that chaos into his Image. Likewise, the elements couldn't damage him at all.

The Heavelingly Spears, he realized, were partly misdirection.

It was almost silly, as saying that the journey's real treasure was the friends he had made along the way. But that was close enough. While he absorbed the storm, Shen had been so focused on survival, so driven to improve himself through analyzing his insights into his Laws, that he hadn't realized that he...

...had already perfectly Harmonized with them.

To be fair, someone else might have some trouble turning those Laws into their Image despite consuming the storm. However, Shen's breakthrough had also been all about centering himself and cementing his identity. It had come after he had dealt with most of his emotional issues and found himself. Moreover, his willpower had received a great boost due to the Realization Impartation.

The Heavenly Spears' physical elements became fuel for his dantian, qi, for him to kill his enemies with.

The Laws fit his Idealized Image like pieces of a puzzle. Surprisingly, they were somehow purer than the ones he had found in the storm. They boosted his body and soul even further beyond what the Path Idealization had accomplished. He was completely healed and growing stronger.

The misdirection had been even greater than he had thought! The Heavenly Spears were also the reward for passing the tribulation! He would've died if he failed to take them in, but otherwise, they only benefitted him.

In fact, so much so that if Shen didn't rank up in time, his stats might reach D+++—doubtful, but possible—and he would have to pay an even higher price to improve them later.

So, he yelled, "Buy rank-up to C-rank !"

=

WARNING!

You're trying to reach C-rank as a cultivator.

If you proceed, your existence will be fundamentally changed. You already can't use mana, but this is a step further. It is not reversible through any known means.

You won't be able to purchase stats any longer, and you'll not be able to reach S-rank using the Guardian System.

Are you sure you want to continue?

=

The bit about S-rank was interesting, but Shen didn't care. He was a cultivator.

"I'm sure," he replied impatiently.

Then, as Law and mana simultaneously improved his body and soul, as his mind expanded while he was still tirelessly working to understand more of the Laws he was taking into himself, Shen experienced nirvana for the first time.

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