Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

Feeling battered and bruised after fending off Shé Yin's surprise attack, Chún limped over to the corner of the cave where he kept his sack, clothing and other odds and ends.

"Mountain, is this going to be a short trip? Or am I going to be searching for the lightning core for days?"

"Finding the core is only going to be possible during the storm, but…" his locus paused, "it might take a while. The storm is really gathering force - in fact…" there was another lengthy pause which left Chún quirking an eyebrow.

"I take it there is one of those - unforeseen - problems that always seem to happen every time you send me out on one of these 'missions'?"

"The storm started to intensify once it crossed into my plane… comparing it to the storm on the original site, it has gotten much stronger and larger." replied the Mountain.

"I thought… you said you shared the storm with the site?" questioned the young teen.

"Yes, but it is in both planes at once - and the storm on our side is becoming - much - stronger. It is also absorbing Essence and developing different attributes," his locus responded, "In one sense, it is better, because if it stayed the same size as the original storm it would only cover a small area of my plane, but it has become much more dangerous."

"Will it affect the original site?" asked Chún worriedly?

"Only slightly - the majority of the Essence is not leaking back through and there is no massive amount of land for it to gather strength on," answered the Mountain after a moment.

Chún frowned, then shrugged. "Not enough to really bother me though, right?"

"I doubt it," answered the Mountain, "unless it - really - escalates. The issue is that a lot of Essence Beasts will be attracted by the lucky chances created by the storm."

Chún scratched his head as he sorted through his things, "You are going to have to explain that. I thought True Cultivators made lucky chances."

The Mountain laughed. "You would need thousands of True Cultivators working non stop every day to keep up with the demand. True Cultivators go to places that are dead or dying and revitalise them, or to places with excesses of wild or violent Essence and channel them back safely into the world."

His locus paused and pointed out, "This is similar to what you have been doing, since you started living on me mostly - before you started walking around on me, I had barely more than average levels of Essence, due to the amount of harvesting that had gone on over the years, which is bad for a Mountain. We are supposed to naturally have higher levels of Essence."

"Is that why in the stories, the Culti… Consumers always have their sects up on mountains?"

"Not always, but often," agreed the Mountain, "This storm is collecting, mixing and generating Essence and then spreading it over a large area to be absorbed naturally. This will help a lot of herbs, plants and animals to advance - like I said, lucky chances - especially if it creates Essence Crystals, or jades or even spontaneously creates treasures out pure Essence."

"This is what happens naturally if there are normal or high levels of Essence?" Chún asked in understanding, "then you would not need True Cultivators. We are here to restore the balance caused by bad or overuse, then - I understand much more clearly now."

"Yes," agreed his locus, "that and creating the 'Inheritances' that Consumers are so fond of. Unless there is a spontaneous plane merge bringing in ruins or tombs or whatever from the other plane, constructions like that are not 'naturally' created."

"So Yijing was right? Consumers do not usually leave behind inheritances?" asked Chún as he got dressed in one of his full sets of clothing that he had bought from the village, including boots, trousers and shirt.

"Some World level Cultivators will create inheritances when they leave their planet. A few Peak Sky Consumers will who feel that they want their legacy to carry on after their death, maybe. That might amount to maybe five or ten inheritances every few generations, most of them minor," explained his friend.

"Not nearly enough," agreed the young teen, "its amazing no one has realised it."

"If a frog hops into a cold spring that slowly warms up into a hot spring, it never notices up until the point that it dies," said the Mountain, "most never question. It just is how it has always been."

"Well, this sounds like it will be a big trip - like one of those Jianghu wanderings from those stories. Maybe I will learn new Essence techniques, Dao patterns or martial skills or have epic fights - wait, I have had enough of those, I do not want more," said the white haired teen excitedly, "I have not traveled more than half a day away from the cave since all this started - so I will provision up."

"You should activate your cloak if you are going outside," warned the Mountain, "There is a lot of rain out there - you do not want to get soaked with your good clothing on. It will also keep you from being blown away."

"Right," agreed Chún, pushing Essence into his cloak, which flowed out of his skin like mist before covering him head to toe in what looked like waterproof robes, if you ignored the fact that they still looked like slowly moving mist.

Picking up the sack and empty bowl he headed out of his cave while asking a question that had been bouncing around in his head since the Mountain had first mentioned the lightning core, "How am I supposed to bring something like - lightning - back to the cave? It will either shock me or dissipate - or both, right?"

"You will use your Staff," instructed the Mountain, "It can hold and sustain the lightning core safely - it will also strengthen the staff to have it in contact with such a potent source of Wood Element."

"How do I use my staff to do that?" wondered the teen as he walked out of the cave entrance tunnel into the now pouring wind and strong winds. The rumbles of thunder suggested the Mountain's idea to find a lightning core was probably quite possible.

"Do not worry about it for now," reassured his locus, "I will show you when the time comes."

Shrugging, he went over to the fire pit that was now completely out and filling with water - only the continual slow movement of Fire Dao patterns around the base of the 'stew pot' presumably keeping the stew inside the sealed container hot. "Is this going to be a problem?" he asked, gesturing at the ugly looking sludge of ash and water.

"It is actually very beneficial for growing things," answered the mountain, unconcerned, "Both the Heaven and Earth Vine and the little flying Essence beings, have asked for me to distribute it into the ground of the clearing."

Chún frowned… something niggling at the back of his thoughts and then he realised. "Oh no, the workshop!"

Quickly running over to the small clearing he had created just inside the forest, he saw that the 'saltpan' similarly filled with water. The drying pit had closed over however and he breathed a sigh of relief. The various minerals could be boiled back out once the rain stopped - and he did not really need more of them at the moment anyway.

"Your latest batch of pottery is actually firing in the kilns underground," remarked the Mountain, "including the Cauldrons. I closed over the drying pit because I did not want it to fill with water."

"En. OK, I was worried for no reason. Just like you stored all the food that is usually outside in the clearing?"

"Yes. I recommend you only travel light, though - enough for maybe two meals and some snacks," his locus warned, "You can hunt and gather as you travel - you will need room for herbs and medicines you find to bring back."

The Mountain's 'tone' turned stern, "I am still going to teach you medicine even if you choose not to become a Master Alchemist, because you need to be able to create the medicine you need if you get hurt - I have said before that Consumer medicines will not work for you."

"I have no objections to becoming Master of Anything," protested the teen as he walked quickly back to the cave, "but I am worried about trying to become a Master of Everything."

"It is a slow process, but unless something unfortunate happens, you have a long life ahead of you," pointed out his friend, "you have time to learn."

"Except you seem bent on teaching me everything immediately…" argued the young teenager as he trotted back into the cave entry passage "...where do you keep the stored food anyway?"

"Side rooms, normally I keep them closed off," a arm span away from Chún a little way down the tunnel passage a small opening appeared. He walked over and looked in. A small store of preserved meat jerky snacks and root vegetables that kept well was visible. He shrugged and put a couple of meals worth of food in the sack.

"I need a proper backpack or something - or a spatial device like in the stories." He laughed. "Those are not true right?"

"Oh no, they are quite common, but usually its a case of someone linking an object to a small dimensional fold… time does not pass in those and they are sterile - so easy to store things safely in," responded the Mountain, "It is just a very small and incomplete version of a plane."

"Do you have any? Or can we make one?" questioned the silver haired True Cultivator excitedly.

"They either require very complex Dao Manifestations or a great deal of energy to happen naturally. Neither of us has the skill to make one at the moment deliberately," admitted the Mountain.

"Slightly confused, because it sounds like you are one, so why can you not make smaller one if you have already made a large version," Chún asked as he finished adding provisions to his sack.

"The simple answer is that it is a lot easier to make changes to myself, than it is to manipulate another plane. There is a reason why they are rare," answered his locus, "and as you might guess, none of the Consumers who have ever died on me through the ages ever left one behind."

There was a pause and then the Mountain pointed out somewhat acerbically, "Besides the Cloak is actually a spatial device anyway. You can store things in it already and it changes shape. Just put your things in there."

The teen frowned and shook his head. "I forgot. Cloak - let me know if you become too full. In a fight, feel free to dump out anything that gets in the way."

The Mountain sighed. "Your Cloak agrees. Do not forget Dao pots for gathering medicine in please and any other tools you might need."

Chún spent the next half shi or so going around gathering up tools, containers, spare changes of clothing, food, his sleeping roll and so on as well as making sure that everything else that was usually just left out in the clearing or near the cave - like his gliding horse full of trade goods - was stowed securely. Around him the storm continued to gather strength. If it was not for the cloak that kept him protected in a small bubble of calm, he suspected he would not be able to stand against the wind. Several times lightning actually struck the Heaven and Earth Vine, to seemingly little effect.

As the wind and rain began rising to cyclonic levels, Chún was very grateful for his cloak - everything just seemed to be absorbed into it - which on some level made sense if it was already some sort of collection of Water and Air Essence - but Chún was becoming less and less pleased with the idea of going out into the storm - especially when he noticed the pair of flying Essence creatures dart across the clearing into the branches and leaves of the Heaven and Earth Vine for a more solid shelter.

Looking up into the sky, which was now a strange bruise-like colour, lit through with flashes of lightning and roiling clouds as if it was a pot of boiling water, the teen swore he could see the faces and shapes of beasts and other strange creatures forming and collapsing from the clouds. Odd colours of Lightning and entire swirls of Essence of different types added to the mix of what was starting to look like one of the hells.

"This is stupid," thought Chún to the Mountain. "Even if there are really lucky chances out there, I have the distinct impression that the unlucky chances are far more numerous." He could feel the prickle of angry and wild Essence starting to increase at an alarming rate.

The Mountain sighed, "The storm is taking a life of its own, possibly because there is such a build up of free and wild Essence here for it to feed on. It - is - a lot more dangerous than when I initially suggested you go out into it. If your intuition is telling you to stay here, you should listen to it. You must follow your own Dao - I am an adviser and support for you. Not a Master."

"Can it harm you?" asked Chún, as he looked into the madness that was the sky, frowning as the black, blue, deep green and dark blue roiling clouds formed an evil looking face and stared back, lightning flickering in the eye sockets and mouth of the shape.

"Not in any substantial way, no," answered the Mountain.

"Will it harm anything important - like the Heaven and Earth Vine? Or the World Tree?" clarified the teen as he considered the cyclone - he could see what looked like funnels forming and touching down, sending trees and debris up into the air.

"World Tree is inviolate, it will not even notice - the storm will not be able to enter its canyon," said the mountain as the ground trembled under Chún's feet. "Her Highness recommends you stay here and work on strengthening the protections of the clearing."

"Well if any Essence Beasts are willing to risk their souls and lives out there for whatever strange creations appear because of this, they are welcome to it," decided the teen firmly, "I am protecting my home. I bet I find most of their bodies after this is over anyway."

He turned and headed back into the cave, realising that the sound of everything was now so loud he literally could not make out any individual sounds. A moment later the cloak clapped over his ears, muffling the majority of it and easing the headache he did not realise was forming.

"Thanks. I will…" he realised he was speaking loudly as he stepped into the tunnel and stopped sheepishly. "Nèige, open the store room please, friend." Once the small room appeared, he took the sack out of the cloak and placed it in. "I will leave it packed for another time."

Going back to the cave he removed all the various odds and ends, pots and tools he had gathered and put them away - including placing the sleeping roll back on his nest of soft furs, leaves and grasses.

The screaming, rumbling, howling and crashing storm was still audible even this deep underground. The occasional vibration of thunder which rattled the cave spoke to its increasing violence.

"How do I help bolster the defences of the Heaven and Earth Vine," he asked once he was finished storing everything away.

"Centre of the cave," the Mountain replied almost absentmindedly, "Sorry, I'm adjusting things out here to take advantage of all the energy this cyclone is throwing around."

Chún rolled his eyes. "Good thing I decided not to go out - you would have been too busy to tell me what to watch out for."

He moved into the centre of the cave, recognising it as the spot that Yijing had had him sit to do the initial linking with his locus. Sinking into Essence Sense he could see the Heaven and Earth Vine was throwing out additional Dao Manifestations of Defence - mainly against force and to isolate the area from additional damage.

The Vine appeared to be soaking up a lot of energy from the storm as well and redirecting it into the defensive patterns, but there was a flicker of unbalance every time the storm struck with a particularly strong bolt or entire tree trunks and boulders were thrown across the treeline.

Chún nodded to himself and sat down and started pulsing a steady stream of Essence into the core of the Dao Manifestations below him.

The Essence veins in the cave, normally drowned out by the light from the Silver Tree began to glow brightly in time with the pulse, making the whole cave look like a glowing, beating heart.

Pulsing his Essence into the core of the Dao manifestations like this Chún could see everything that was happening to the clearing and the Vine through the Dao Manifestations though his Essence Sense.

As the regular pulses of Essence flowed into the manifestations, the defensive structures solidified and the Heaven and Earth Vine was able to absorb more of the storm's energy, without risking damage to the manifestations shielding the clearing.

Taking advantage of the steady supply and not having to be constantly patching up fraying Dao patterns, the Vine spun out another set of Dao Manifestations. The Mountain suddenly spoke, "She asked for my help on this one - we took it from some memories the land has of a couple Consumer fortress shield Formations - watch this…"

A tiny pinpoint of light appeared at the highest point of the Vine's branches then began rapidly expanding outward into an enormously complex Dao Manifestation as it fell to the ground, tracing out a solid dome of glowing silver Essence as it fell.

By the time the Dao Manifestation sank into the ground, it covered at least a li beyond the clearing in a shimmering shield of Essence. The shrieking and sight of the massive cyclone was cut off as if a giant silver bowl had been placed by a god over the top of the Heaven and Earth vine.

"There, that should…"

There was a massive concussion, sending shudders through the cave and the dome of silver flickered, revealing what appeared to be an absolute waterfall of lightning striking the shield.

As the lightning slammed into the ground, it jumped and formed itself into strange shapes and creatures, that darted and flowed around the Essence Shield, seemingly looking for weakness.

Chún blinked as he increased his rate of Essence flowing into the defences. "Looks like the lightning core came to us?"