Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

A shi or so of getting hit and following Shé Yin's Dao patterns gave Chún a solid working base in the Snake Movement Dao. Deceptively confusing and attacking from any angle as fast as lightning; drawing in the enemy with movements that allowed you to attack their weak point.

He found the ability of the Snake Movement to incorporate parts of an enemy's pattern into the movement to feed into a strike the most interesting; the few times he had managed to land a hit on his sparring partner was because he had connected the Snake Movement into the Monkey Movement and visa versa, changing the rhythm and pattern between Snake and Monkey. The change to Monkey would always give him a new angle of attack which he could then connect straight back to Snake for the strike.

Because Shé Yin could not move like a Monkey, he had trouble immediately countering Chún's switch between movement Daos. As long as Chún attacked before his opponent pinpointed the weak points of the Monkey Movement, he could strike with Snake from a point in the pattern the Monkey Movement would not normally be able to attack from.

Likewise if he added Monkey into Snake, he could occasionally attack with Monkey in the middle of the Snake Movement where the Snake would not normally have a point of attack.

This was easy to realise, but very hard to do. To chain the two styles together, the key was Snake latching onto the Monkey pattern's weak points and becoming part of it, giving him a way to temporarily add Monkey movements and attack patterns into the Snake Movement naturally. So he had to visualise both patterns and chain them together in his movements wherever the patterns matched.

As one might imagine, he only had a small number of successes and even smaller number of strikes landing on target. Even so, there was only one word to describe the Snake Movement Dao: Domineering!

Was this not too Domineering? Could you not continue to add Movement Daos together using the Snake Dao until eventually you encompassed all Movement Dao?

When Chún gasped out this question, Shé Yin ceased attacking. Rubbing his bruises and breathing heavily despite his Cultivation, Chún was confused - it had to be said that up to this point, the Silver Snake had attacked relentlessly without a moment's respite. Even periods of stillness were part of setups for ambush, forcing Chún to be constantly on guard, "Why did you stop, Senior?"

The Mountain's relayed translation of Shé Yin's swaying came down the link, "As… a reward for… your understanding… today's lesson… ends here."

There was a longer pause than normal as the large reptile lowered its head to meet the young teen's eyes. "The Dao of… Snake is strong. But when a Snake... encompasses all and… dominates everything… under the Heavens. Then it is… no longer Snake… but Dragon!"

Shé Yin turned away, disappearing into the grass as he lowered himself, but the Mountain sent back his last words. "You are… weak. But if you learn... to move... like a Snake. Someday... you may become… a Dragon."

Chún let himself collapse onto the grass of the clearing. "Mountain, does he mean that the Dragon Movement encompasses all movement? Is he saying I could learn it?"

"In theory," replied the Mountain, slowly, "if you learnt the movement of every beast under the Heavens and combined them into a single unified whole, using Snake Movement as the Dao which formed the common thread between them; that would be the Dragon Movement Dao."

"Oh," said the young True Cultivator, faintly. "I should get started then."

"In the interests of fairness I should mention, if you used the Movement Dao of the Crane as the common thread, it would be the Vermilion Bird or Phoenix Movement Dao," explained his locus, "if you used a cat it would be White Tiger Movement Dao, a turtle or tortoise would lead to the Black Tortoise Movement Dao. Each of these can be used to link the movement of all Beasts together to form the four sacred Movement Daos."

"I see. So there is always a different way. Is there human Movement Dao that does the same?" asked Chún.

"Humans have not yet created a purely unique form of martial skill - they normally mimic the movements of Beasts when they fight," opined the Mountain, "Humans uniqueness lays in imagination, creativity and the ability to create new things unrelated to pure muscle. Physically, they are generalists - they can do some of everything - but unlike Beasts are not so specialised in one direction or the other."

"Maybe one day I can develop a Human Movement Dao," the white haired teen said thoughtfully.

"Learn to crawl before you try to fly, friend," advised the Mountain.

"Speaking of crawling," grimaced Chún, "I think I should take some of that medicine. I think that spar broke things inside me. Will it work for me since my body tempering is past Earth Level?"

"You are Cultivating with your True Dao - not a mangled copy of someone else's, so it will work well for you - the same as if you were a civilian who had not started to damage their Dao with inferior Cultivation Techniques," reassured the Mountain. "It is the level of damage done to a person's Dao that interferes with the effectiveness of the medicine, not the level of Cultivation."

"Oh." Suddenly curious, he dragged himself over to the small bowl of pills and swallowed one.

A refreshing feeling spread from his throat and swiftly spread through his whole body, sweeping away the bruises and discomfort from a shi worth of harsh sparring in an instant. He felt better and very hungry.

"Yes," he sighed, "I need to make up a much larger pot of this. But lunch first."

---

After a satisfying meal, Chún grabbed the large water pot he usually used to carry water from the spring to the 'saltpan'. "Mountain, is there any 'Blood Mint' or 'Minor Wound Heal herb' I could advance. I do not want to over-harvest that one bunch I know about."

"There are several nearby locations that are suitable for harvesting or advancement," replied his locus. "I will mark them on the map."

It only took the teen a half shi to collect a much larger amount of the previous ingredients that made up the healing jelly - he already had enough five-colour honey and there was enough blood ginseng around after the Beast Horde, so it was not difficult.

Once the pot was simmering over the coals in the fire pit, he looked up at the sky. "There's about two shi of daylight left, did you want to start the Creation of a minor 'Fateful Encounter'?"

There was a tingle of anticipation from the link to the locus. "I have an idea about this. I think it would be good to practice the techniques you have learnt in an area with a lower level of Essence. Let us return to the 'original' mountain site on Golden Crow planet."

Chún scratched his head and looked down at his handmade loincloth. While he had gotten better at making them, they were not anything he wanted to risk anyone else seeing him in. "Well, in that case, I am going to put on some clothing."

A kè later, he swung into the trees headed for the old geese flock pasture that parked the boundary of the dimensional link between the original mountain site and the independent Mountain World, carrying on a conversation via the link as he moved swiftly out of the forest.

"So where should we put it?" questioned Chún.

"Well, I need to set up a stable gateway between Golden Crow Planet and myself. So far I have relied on the anchor to the original location, but as I change and the differences between myself and the original site become greater, it becomes harder to maintain a stable connection."

The Mountain sensed the teen's confusion and reassured him. "I know you do not understand it now, for now just accept it."

He mentally shrugged in response, "It is not as if I have not been accepting equally strange ideas on your word already."

The Mountain sent a wave of amus.e.m.e.nt down the link, continuing to explain, "The Geese pasture is the best spot because all of your changes that started this avalanche of changes started from that spot - the Manifestation Dao's that obscure and protect the Mountain in both worlds start and end there."

"That really is not that much protection you know," replied Chún reflectively as he bounced between the trees. It was becoming more difficult to find trees big enough to use as the forest began to thin out as he approached the dimensional border, so he did a few more jumps and then landed softly on the ground.

He began trotting quickly towards what used to be his old hunting grounds when he was struggling to survive as an orphan, smiling in nostalgia as he passed the small waterfall where he used to wash, "We only put down that one concealment Dao down. There is nothing to fight off anyone with."

"Actually, I have grown copies of the Concealment Dao wherever I could link up Essence spring points all along the dimensional border," responded his locus, "I have grown your ice-crack grass and placed Crystal Seeds right around the entire border, both to soak up excess essence that might otherwise cross into Golden Crow and alert Consumers that there is a hidden realm here - and to create Crystal Guardians patrolling all along our side of the border."

"I thought Crystal Lords only formed when there was a Dao Manifestation node with a lot of Essence Crystal," asked the teen, slowing as he glimpsed and heard through the trees the stream that marked the boundary of the Geese pasture.

"Guardians form whenever there is enough Essence Crystal to sustain them," corrected the Mountain pedantically, "the concentration of Crystal along the border has become high enough to support many Crystal Warriors - there was a lot of Essence starting to leak across - the Crystals have been soaking it all up. They are the lowest level of guardians, but three could easily hold off a True Sky Consumer. Anyone below Peak Earth, they can fight one on one."

His locus paused and then said hesitantly, "I have also been growing Crystals into Manifestation patterns of illusion, confusion and attack, I have been copying from patterns I have seen growing naturally elsewhere."

"I thought that was not possible? Honestly, the more you explain the 'rules', the more it seems there are exceptions," said Chún with some asperity as he approached the stream, "I almost understand why the Consumers just said 'to the hells with it, we will just do whatever makes us stronger'."

The Mountain seemed to shrug. "Essence Crystals are contained - they do not leak or divert Essence away from natural patterns - and also I have not just placed them down like a Consumer does with Formations, overriding the natural flow - I have woven them into the existing Dao Patterns. They just come in handy to let me create extra manifestations where I need them."

His locus sounded rueful, "I take your point that it sounds like splitting hairs, but this is an approach that requires an immense amount of Essence - you could say an extravagant amount. The circ.u.mstances that have permitted it to be used are quite unique. It is not an option that would be practical normally, even for me."

"So if Consumers started to use Essence Crystals for Formations, then…"

"They would blow themselves up - and probably most of the area around them," interrupted the Mountain, "Any Consumer below True World Level at the least. And if they did find a way to start using them safely, they would quickly outstrip the worlds normal supply - and that would destroy the world."

Chún rolled his eyes as he stepped across the stream into the geese pasture. "OK. Ok, I was just specu… lating…" he frowned, suddenly feeling nauseated and lightheaded.

He gasped, feeling as if he could not get enough air into his lungs. "What…?"

There was a buzzing in his ears and he was seeing spots and flashes. He thought he heard something. "Activ... t... oak…"

He frowned in confusion, not understanding why he was suddenly falling.

There was an odd pulse through the link that he only registered dimly as he hit the grass. A sudden rush of Essence Mist burst from his skin as his cloak formed around him and he gasped as his head cleared - leaving him with a shocking headache, which only worsened when he tried to ask his friend what was going on.

He clamped his hands around his splitting skull in self defence. "Āiyō! Āiyō! Āiyō! By the hells…"

He sat on the grass cross legged with his head down for a kè or so as the headache receded quickly, though not fast enough for his taste. Eventually, it had reduced to a dull thumping and his stomach settled enough that he felt like it might not hurt too much to use the link again.

"Mountain? What happened?" He winced at a stab of pain through his temples.

"Essence deprivation." His locus sounded apologetic in the link. "It should not normally happen to a True Cultivator as their bodies are constantly producing and channelling Essence, but your body has become accustomed to a very high Essence Environment in the last few days, on top of the already very high regular level Essence around the Mountain. Your body has not had to bother with increasing the amount of Essence it produced even though it had gotten used to needing more."

"Use small words, mountain. I felt like I could not breathe - nothing to do with Essence," said Chún carefully.

"You are like a fish out of water," explained the Mountain slowly, "Your body was expecting a level of Essence that was suddenly not present and it did not have enough time to adjust its own Essence production levels to compensate."

"I cannot leave the mountain?" asked the teen in confusion.

"No. This is temporary," reassured his locus, "Your body is already adjusting to generating the level of Essence required by your body - I am telling the Cloak to slowly decrease the level of Essence it is emitting and your body is maintaining the balance. It was just too sudden a drop - your body has never needed to generate that much Essence before and it was unable to adjust quickly enough."

There was a pause. "Judging previous trips on and off the Mountain, once your body is used to making the right amount of Essence, it will have no problems raising the levels that high in the future."

The mountain sighed, "The downside to that of course is that you will have a lot harder time concealing your identity when you are generating so much. Essence will not spill out as your body will be consuming it, but any Consumer will be able to see how strong you are even if you disguise it as Consumer style Diantians."

"You make it sound like I need Essence the way opium addicts need poppy seed smoke. How is that a Natural Dao Body? Is there any chance my body might learn to stop needing so much Essence all the time?" asked Chún wearily, "if it can adjust the amount it makes up, can it not adjust the amount it uses downward?"

"Ah… perhaps… try to meditate on the concept?" suggested the Mountain tentatively, "I will keep watch and slowly lower the Cloak's intensity while you do that - if it does not work I can tell the Cloak to push the Essence levels back up."

"Right." Chún inhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes focusing on identifying, isolating and dismissing from his consciousness each sound and sensation, bringing up his Essence Sense and focusing it on his own patterns.

"My Body needs to be flexible… to be able to tolerate any level of Essence, but not be dependent on any one level… tolerant but not dependent..." He focused on that concept, visualising the Dao patterns for tolerance and independence in his mind and letting them float into his own patterns…

...a gentle shift left him feeling balanced again. He opened his eyes noticing the Cloak was gone. Looking up at the Crow, he thought perhaps half a shi had passed. Everything felt OK… but best to check. "Mountain?"

"It worked. Your body has actually decreased its requirement for Essence to where you could easily pass for a low to mid rank Earth Consumer," the mountain sounded relieved, "It is notable that you are still fully supplying both your Cloak and Staff as well as myself via our links - all the excess Essence is going straight to me - it is a substantial amount." The last part sounded slightly giddy.

"I take it reducing the amount of Essence produced by my body was not the answer?" asked the teen in confusion.

"It would be unwise," explained the mountain, "Much harder to increase or decrease the level of production suddenly at a moments notice, than to redirect it until it is needed."

"You were complaining about the Cloak and Staff stealing your supply of Essence…" pointed out Chún suspiciously, "it seems like a… convenient solution. What happens if I cannot send the Essence to you or the others for some reason?"

"You will probably need all the Essence you can generate in that sort of situation?" replied the Mountain shiftily.

"Bah, if you had eyes, Mountain, you would be avoiding mine right now. I want to make sure my body is able to control the amount of Essence it produces appropriately," ordered Chún, "I am going to practice consciously generating different levels of Essence. Do not interfere, please."