The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

I walked into the chamber, and found five people standing inside. Obviously, not the Matriarchs or Patriarchs of the clans, the entire city would’ve been in a panic had the emperor decided to come here of all places, and this entire thing would’ve been impossible to arrange. I kept a smile on my face, as I bowed slightly towards the members. Of the people present, I only knew Xi Shie, who had been sent from the Shie clan. The boy gave me the barest hints of an acknowledging nod as I raised my face.

“I thank all of you for being present here, and of course, to the respective elders who are taking their precious time to look over this auction,” I said, looking towards all the representatives present. “We’ve made the preparations already, all you will be required to do is to channel your Qi into the formation present and the arts will do most of the work,” I said, gesturing to the meeting round table with five seats already setup behind which the members of the five clans stood.

At my words, each one began to channel their Qi to bring the projection of the chosen elder who will be attending the auction. I took the time to inspect the people present in the room.

The five families were based on the five elements. The Shie obviously had poison, but their base Qi nature was metal. I wasn’t terribly surprised as I’d already learned of this from Liuxiang, who’d told me with a smile how the most poisonous of all poisons were some metals, and how she’d often practiced with them as a child. But besides the Shie, there was the Yue, the clan of Water who resided on the northern end with a grand manor. Xuanwu told me they were descendants from his people from the north, though the land was no longer held by the empire. After them were the Huo, the fire clan. Their clan resided in the west. The old man was a descendant from their clan, though he seemingly left and has cut all ties with them. Yang Shen belonged to the Huo as well.

Lastly there were the Tu. They were the Earth clan, and resided in the east. This was the interesting part, and for the life of me I couldn’t find any books on this, almost as if all traces were removed, but the Tu were supposed to hold claim to the central lands. So where the emperor’s palace is currently. And Zhao, the royal clan that currently held power and from where the emperor belonged, were the clan of the East. The Jade Court was separate from the Zhao, but the Zhao enjoyed many of the benefits that came from having a current emperor in power.

The Tu were also interesting because they were distinctly not from the Jade empire. I saw the representative of the Tu, and it was a young woman with dark hair and an earthy skin color, with bright eyes that told me she was from somewhere closer to the tropics. So the Tu were more representatives, or should be, but acted as vassals of the state directly in charge of overseeing their territory within it.

No records of their original homeland were present.

The extent to which things felt convoluted and wrong was astounding here, the rather clear history of multiple clans, their lands, and the divine beasts themselves seemed to have seemingly been wiped out. But it wasn’t a mere wipe out, it was like something had eradicated the very memory of what may have existed beyond these lands. And the thought terrified me.

I put the thought away from my head as the scrying arts began to activate. As the Qi of the representatives swirled around the formation, one by one the elder’s from the five clans appeared and I bowed my head. “Greetings, elders. I am honored to have you here today,” I said.

The five figures sat on the tables, all looking at me with a varied mix of expressions. Some skeptical, others amused, others derisive. I let it all wash over me, as I smoothly continued ahead. “You are all already well aware of the purpose I have called you here,” I said, looking at all five of them.

“Is it true that you wrote five divine books, boy?” the elder from the Huo clan asked, arms crossed as he raised an eyebrow.

“We find it rather hard to believe, even with the invitation we got,” the Yu elder replied, covering her mouth with a fan.

“It is certainly rare to find a sage this… young,” the Tu elder spoke, leaning back in his chair. I was confused how as a projection he was able to move the chair with him, but I didn’t question what I saw.

“We know it to be true,” the Shie representative said, looking around.

“Let us hear what the boy has to say first,” the representative from the Zhao spoke, as the rest became quiet.

I nodded, continuing onwards. “It is true,” I replied. “I wrote the five books in a moment of inspiration that lasted for nine days and nights, and had it not been for my vassals and people taking care of my well being I would’ve died from exhaustion.”

The elders looked at me, some with open amusement, others with mild surprise. “If it is true as you say, then where are these texts? We aren’t willing to believe much before we can see them first,” the Huo elder asked.

I bowed my head to the man. “They are put under seal to stop them from gathering too much power and escaping out into the world. Their spirits have not yet been tamed, and I’m afraid I cannot show them to all of you before we come to some sort of agreement here first.”

The Huo elder snorted, clearly displeased.

“But,” I added, as I raised my head. “What I can show you, are the results of some of the things those books can create.”

“We have seen these things. Fascinating creations,” the Yue elder said.

“Fascinating, and nothing that we would want. Merchants would be interested in these things, boy. But we hope you have more than toys to show to us today,” the Tu elder added.

“The things I am about to show you are the things I cannot and will not share with anyone but those with both the power and the weight of responsibility to use these things properly. What I bring to you today are weapons that will change the face of war forever,” I boldly proclaimed, walking to one of the corners of the room as I opened a locked box with a seal that broke under my Chi, before taking out the rifle present inside.

“This… is a gun,” I said, holding the weapon up. “And to show the ability of this weapon, I would like to ask one of the representatives, any who are confident in their defense, to stand aside for me to give a demonstration.”

The provocation seemed to work, as the Tu elder raised an eyebrow. “You think you can break the defense of a Tu? Wenshan, stand aside,” the elder said.

The girl, Wenshan, bowed to her elder, stepping towards me before giving me another bow.

“I’ll be using an art from my clan to bolster my defenses,” she said, before raising her head back up. I gave the girl a nod, and added a single bullet to my gun.

Wenshan channeled her arts, her stance wide and steady as Earth Qi swirled around her body. Her complexion darkened as she took upon an even more earthy look, the Qi making her skin dense and sturdy, and I could tell that she was heavier now as well.

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“That won’t be enough,” I said, looking at the girl, who frowned at me.

“Wenshan, did we tell you to hold back?” the elder said, and the girl nodded. This time, I felt a much more powerful burst of Qi, as the girl’s body shifted once more, taking a rock-like texture on her skin. Then, the earth moved around the chamber, and a chunk rose from the ground, forming a floating shield in front of her.

I nodded, raising my gun. Chi swirled around my hand, as I began to pour it into the weapon. I’d made this thing to decrease the gap that existed between mortals and cultivators. To make the existential unfairness a little less unfair… but ultimately, the world was unfair, no matter how hard I would want that to change. Even a gun, in the hands of a cultivator, transformed into a much more powerful weapon if used correctly.

I let my Chi flood the weapon, sharpening the point of the bullet. I had grooves carved into the barrel to give it spin, but ultimately, doing it myself was going to be more effective, and so I did. The bullet began to spin, and I continued to push that forward. It spun and spun and spun, until I could hear the sound of the bullet, like the revving of an engine as the Chi began to vibrate around my gun and spin from the resonance I’d inadvertently created.

When I felt that I could add no more power into it, I put my finger on the trigger. Pulling back on the safety, I aimed the weapon at the floating chunk of earth, aiming to not hit anything vital, before my finger pressed on the weapon.

Boom.

There was a single exploding sound, and it happened fast enough that it was hard to tell what had transpired if you weren’t looking. The girl, Wenshan, was slammed into the other wall, the bullet having torn past her shoulder, before exploding the wall behind her where it finally came to a stop. The people in the chamber stared at me, including the elders. I knew the representatives didn’t see it, but I also knew that the elders did. Both see and hear it.

I did too, if only barely. It wasn’t just the gunshot, that resounded. Instead of one, there had been three explosions. The first from the firing of the gun, then a whistling noise as the gun had traveled before the crackle I knew to be a sonic burst created by the bullet breaking the sound barrier, and lastly, it’s collision with the wall that had been reinforced to withstand strikes from a Master, now caved in with cracks traveling all along it. I made a mental note to get that repaired with the money I got from this.

Walking closer, I held a hand to Wenshan who clutched her shoulder, having already stopped the bleeding. I handed her a simple pill, before putting some of my Qi at her wound, to heal her injury. The girl ate the pill without question and her wound closed rapidly, before she stood up and bowed her head. “I’ve been bested. Your weapon is truly formidable.”

I smiled at the girl, as she simply walked back to stand behind the elder from the Tu clan, who now stood with a contemplative look.

“What had been the… thing it had shot forward? A pebble?” the Yue elder asked.

“It’s called a bullet, and it’s made from steel,” I replied.

“Steel?” the woman asked.

“It’s iron, but much stronger than normal. Just one of the things I made,” I said.

“A gimmick is all we see. Had she not been standing still, you would not have succeeded,” the Huo elder said, still derisive.

“No- she would’ve been bested still,” the Tu elder interrupted. “We know defeat when we see it, and we aren’t too proud to admit it,” the man said, looking towards the Huo elder before he glanced at me. “Consider us interested, boy.”

I bowed my head once more. “This is a weapon that can be used even by mortals. Not to the same extent of power or precision, and just one gun and one mortal will not be able to rival a cultivator. But Five? Ten? A hundred? What about a thousand?” I said, looking at all of them. “Perhaps elders such as all of you may be able to, but there are ten mortals to even the weakest cultivator and elders such as you are one in ten thousand.”

The elders all fell quiet, my words painting a horrifying picture of a grand army all carrying guns, with the ability to bring down the immortals from their throne.

“What do you intend to do with this weapon?” the elder from the Zhao spoke now, his eyes stuck on me. “Be careful, young sage. Your words veer dangerously close to treason.”

I bowed my head once more. “Elders, if I had intended to do so, I would not be standing here in front of you, showing you how my weapons worked,” I replied, putting my fists together. “My intention is simple. To show you that the tides of the world are shifting. And this is far from the only thing I present to you. This is one of the weakest weapons I have. There are other things I have created. I have bombs that can be used by any man, strong enough to kill a cultivator in the sixth realm. I have archers and swordsmen with weapons of steel. Not iron, but steel. Forged in furnaces and laden with Qi, each man would wield steel weapons, spears, bows, swords, armor. What I speak of is not a mere one or two inventions, it is hundreds at once, all given out to thousands, all with the ability to grow into something grander. My sect, the Divine Tree sect, has no mortals. Those who were, have gained a new path, a path of Chi-“ The heavens rumbled above me, and I felt a powerful presence look down upon me for a moment. Even the elders all widened their eyes, as for the briefest moment, I felt the attention of the Azure Dragon resting upon my shoulders.

I grit my teeth, almost tempted to call upon Xuanwu, or to draw power from the Divine Tree, but I resisted the impulse. The moment passed, and I simply looked back up again.

“The ages are changing. The era of cultivators and mortals is over. You have just not realized it yet,” I said, continuing onwards as I leapt at the brief moment of shock. “What I bring you is an invitation… to a brand new world. All I ask is this… will you be left behind by these changing tides… or will you rise upon them, riding at the forefront?” I said, extending a hand out to all of them.

The five families all looked at each other, and then at me. But I wasn’t done, as I began to hammer out the details.

“I will give one book to each of the five families. There will be an agreement, detailing how exactly it can be used and must be kept, but each of you will be able to possess one. In return, I ask for your support, to build our armies, to build new armies. To not ignore the war which looms over the horizon,” I said.

“What do you mean?” the Huo elder asked.

“The enemies are more powerful than we are giving them credit for. The demons are rising,” I said, looking around the table. “You have seen it, haven’t you? The demonic beasts have vanished this winter. That’s not natural, and they aren’t running away. Any of you who have seen a demon will know this. They are mindless and they are brutes, but the reason we have not defeated them, the reason the empire loses more and more ground every passing year is because they do not run. People run. Whether it be mortals, or cultivators. We fear death. They? They relish in death. And now those mindless brutes have someone leading them. Someone smart, someone cunning and with the ability to burn this empire if we are careless. A name you all already know, one thought to have been lost to history,” I said, as all of them looked at me with wide eyes.

“The fire demon,” the Huo elder spoke, eyes wide in shock.

“Yang Shen is back? Is this true, child?” the Yue elder spoke, horrified.

“We killed him! We’d killed him when he last dared show his face,” the Tu elder said.

“The demon has been seen at the Seventh Peak, and had killed an Alchemy Hall elder to take on his appearance. He is cunning, and more powerful than the last time,” the Shie elder said, looking at the others.

Murmurs began but I interrupted them, bringing their attention back to the topic at hand.

“The threat is real, and so are our enemies. In our strength, the empire has grown arrogant. But there is still time to change course, to act,” I said, as I walked up to the table, putting the gun onto it.

“I do not present to you any item, or treasure, you have far more than I possess. What I present to you, is the beginning of a new era. And now I ask… do you accept the offer to join me within it?” I said, and the five elders looked at me, their expressions serious.

They spoke one by one, before leaving in a hurry, all taking the matters to their Matriarchs and Patriarchs. This was beyond them. But I would not need to wait for long. I saw their expressions, and I felt the seed I’d planted in their minds take hold.

The rest was simply a matter of time.

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