Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

The Mountain shook as the lightning kept slamming into the silver shield, causing it to flicker. Chún braced himself as his Immortal's Cave rocked, his eyebrows rising as he locked his elbows behind him.

"Mountain, there is a problem," he thought down the link. There was no clear response that he could notice, but his Essence Sense was whiting out as Essence poured down with the lightning, making it very hard to tell what was going on. The last clear 'image' was of enormous creatures composed of lightning prowling around the edges of the shield, setting trees alight.

There was a groan that shivered through the walls of the cave, the water in the stream splashing wildly; the water in the hot spring pool roiled as if suddenly boiling, sending out clouds of thick steam.

The scent of dirt, dust and a very strong sulphur smell from the hot spring - along with a wave of humid heat - filled the air and coated the back of his throat with a metallic and rotten egg taste.

Pebbles and larger chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, followed by a creaking then loud cracking sound that attracted Chún's attention; blinking the falling dust and soil away he looked up through the steam to see the roots of the Heaven and Earth Vine that had penetrated through during the advancement of the Silver Tree writhing as if in pain.

Frowning and coughing in the dust laden air, he rolled to his feet, summoned his staff, pushed more Essence into his Cloak as if he was expecting to be attacked. Clouds of Essence mist billowed outward from his body through the cave as the Cloak activated, pushing the sulphuric steam, dirt and dust out of the air as he slammed the World Tree staff into the centre of the Dao Manifestation core, pushing Essence through it.

The surface of the lacquered black staff from the World Tree lit up with glowing silver and golden Dao patterns as Essence activated it and the young True Cultivator heard a loud gong-like sound through his Essence Sense as golden-silver light rushed out in a giant bubble from the staff, expanding out into cave surfaces in all directions.

As the Essence from the staff sank into the rock, the rocking and creaking of the cave stabilised down to small shudders and rumbles. Chún looked at the roots in the ceiling, which were now shimmering with the same golden-silver colour. Blinking, he sank into his Essence Sense again, following the pulses flowing between him and the World Tree staff, rather than trying to look out directly.

The scene outside the cave was very strange. The Heaven and Earth Vine was stretching in all directions, its vines and leaves pressed against the inside of the now silver and gold barrier as if it was physically holding the dome up. The vine softly pulsed with multiple colours and types of Essence - although all the Essence types were tinted gold-silver. Thick drifts of Essence Motes floated out from every surface of the vine into the barrier.

Lightning fell against the shield in sheets of crackling power as the ground shivered. Chún could only imagine what it was like outside the barrier - dimly he could make out the fantastical shapes of the lightning creatures moving outside the barrier - and even inside, the roar of thunder drowned out all other sound.

"Friend? This is - not - a storm! What is happening?" Chún concentrated into the link trying to sense his locus' response, but just felt a sensation of effort and pain.

He felt very worried. He had no idea what was happening, other than it seemed as if the Heavens were trying to destroy the Mountain, his friend and his locus. Not only the mountain, but everything on it. The Heaven and Earth vine had managed to put up a barrier, but what about the rest of the mountain - the Essence plants and beasts?

There was a crackling sound and a sudden sharp smell that stung the nose in the air. The roots of the Heaven and Earth Vine in the ceiling hissed and crackled with thin, bluish-white arcs of lightning.

Chún looked up again alarmed; there was a loud crack that stabbed onto the ledge where the Silver Tree grew, followed by an echoing bang and flash that reflected around the cave.

Clouds of dust fell from underneath and the sides of the ledge into the hot spring, which hissed and spat, heavy clouds of Fire Essence rising from its surface, accompanied by another rush of steam, sulphur and heat.

After a moment, he could hear a faint crackling and snapping sound coming from the ledge and a fainter level of that sharp smell drifted through the air. The teen blinked, wondering what had happened, but for the moment he had to keep sending Essence through the Heaven and Earth vine

He closed his eyes and focused as hard as he could on his Essence Sense, but the scene outside had not changed; if anything, the lightning had gotten stronger. Silver sheets of lightning had been joined by purple and gold bolts of energy that looked even more dangerous.

A thought occurred to him and he focused on the ledge above him with his Essence Sense. He could see a small, fully formed tree about five arm-span high, glowing silver and crackling with thin threads of energy.

Another loud crackling sound redirected his attention to the roots of the tree glowing with lightning again - then in his Essence Sense he saw an even larger arc of lightning snapping down into the Silver Tree.

The light from the small tree flared and the small threads of lightning jumping between the branches flared thicker. The air stank of sulphur and metallic dust as well as smelling singed and burnt, causing Chún to sneeze and hurriedly redirect his Cloak to cleanse the air again, but as the Essence mists of the Cloak reached the ledge, they recoiled from the arcs of energy snapping off the Silver Tree.

Another worried thought made him mentally send his Cloak's Essence Mists racing through the cave and tunnel to cover and store all of the food, pottery, Essence herbs and plants in the cave as well as the Gliding Horse full of trade goods he had earlier parked in the entrance tunnel, hoping that the Cloak could protect all of his gains over the last week and a half.

Shé Yin came out of the small alcove behind the tree and wound his body around the small trunk. Lightning crackled off the tree and into him, making the snake twitch convulsively. As another even thicker arc of energy flung itself out of the tree roots in the ceiling towards the tree and snake, Chún shook his head and turned his focus away, back to the outside.

This time he pushed his Essence Sense deep into the Mountain, even as he still pulsed Essence into the core beneath his feet. The Mountain - no, the moon - was fracturing under the onslaught.

Other than a few small oases of relative calm like the area around the Heaven and Earth Vine and the crater canyon of the World Tree, the whole plane seemed to be collapsing into enormous rivers of lava, landslides, firestorms, earthquakes, enormous storms, tornadoes, sinkholes and other calamities. The 'Storm', covered the entire small globe - wrapping it an enormous fury of raging energy, pummelling every square inch relentlessly.

Desperately, the young teen searched for a clue as to what was happening, but there was no answer from his calls into the link and nothing but a maelstrom of pain flooding back. With effort, he closed the link as tightly as he dared, only allowing a trace of the sensations though. Tears of fear and concern for his locus and his life streamed unnoticed down his face, although his face was set in a grim mask of concentration.

The cave rocked again, throwing him off his feet in a massive convulsion. A scream shuddered through the Immortal's cave from all directions as the World Staff left the floor and enormous cracks and fissures raced up the walls, throwing out massive amounts of soil and dirt into the air; the hot spring exploded upward into a massive, roaring, geyser of steam. Chún curled into a ball as he was flung into the air, covering his face with his left sleeve to protect his mouth and nose from the dust, dirt and super-heated steam.

Calling the Essence Mists of his Cloak back into its armour form for protection, he swore vividly as hundreds more root bundles writhing in agony burst through the ceiling in showers of soil, stones, pebbles.

Massive arcs of power blasted out of the roots; the lightning pouring out of the roots flowed into the Silver Tree and crackled through the moisture laden air into the Cloak's armour as he hit a cracking cave wall with his feet.

Chún flung himself desperately back towards his previous position, reaching out with the staff clutched in both outstretched arms. Despite the Cloak slamming down protectively around him as he threw himself back into the centre of the wildly flickering formations, thick bars of energy slammed into him and into the World Tree staff.

His body spasmed as he pushed Essence through his body and muscles to override the effects of the lightning strikes and he slammed the World Tree Staff into the floor hard enough that more cracks spread outward from the impact as it sank a finger length into the floor through the rock.

Immediately opening his Essence flow to full he pushed everything he could down the staff, resulting in a much more solid wall of silver-gold energy rushing outward to stabilise everything once more.

Coughing in the now completely unbreathable air, Chún told the Cloak to seal entirely, allowing him to breathe through it as the Essence Mists filtered the air. Gasping in relief, he heard the sound of relived hissing coming from the ledge above him.

The young silver haired True Cultivator carefully opened up his Essence Sense and focused it cautiously towards the ledge to see Shé Yin slumped exhaustedly in a coil around the silver tree, looking half cooked. His silver scales were blackened and crazed and smoke rose from his skin. Chún thought that the odour of roasted snake would also be added to the melange of bad smells in the cave and shuddered, glad his Cloak kept him from smelling anything.

The Silver Tree looked more like a lightning tree now - as if a static fork of lightning was flashing and arching continuously into the air from the ground.

More controlled arcs of energy jumped constantly into the tree from all over the now root covered ceiling of the cave now, causing the tree to constantly glow brighter.

Pushing his Essence back through the now solidly anchored staff, he grasped onto it tightly and pulled himself back to his feet, while looking outside his Immortals Cave though his Essence Sense. Outside, what looked like dragons, phoenixes, qilins, nians and other mythical and legendary figures and creatures made out of all the types of pure Essence - as well as a few colours of Essence he could not recognise - charged out of the clouds to slam into the ground, the shield and every other surface in powerful attacks as far as he could sense accompanied by rumbles of thunder, ground quakes and shock waves.

Despite himself, the young teen found himself fascinated by what he was seeing. And there was an odd sense of rightness flowing back down the link as the enormous Essence charges slammed into the body of his friend. Each blast or strike of pure energy hurt, but there was a sense of something…

Suddenly Chún found his attention almost f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y dragged to what appeared to be mammoth chains of black, roughly forged, cast iron that were becoming visible. They stretched into the raging, flaming, sparking, boiling clouds, dwarfing anything he had ever seen, plunging deep into what was left of the surface of the moon at nine different points around the small globe.

One stretched taut at an angle into the very spot the World Tree grew. The single link of the cast iron chain erupting from the ground at that point towered over the previously seemingly enormous Tree, dwarfing it into insignificance in both height and thickness, the next link only starting above the World Tree's Crown which normally was lost in the clouds.

Suddenly, through the link, the young Cultivator felt a massive yearning to break that chain. Without questioning it, he pushed all his Essence towards that enormous link, wanting it gone.

There was a sudden shuddering as the whole moon seemed to shiver simultaneously with a soundless cry of exertion. All of the energy pouring down from the clouds - the storms, fire and lightning paused - simultaneously, all over the Mountain Moon.

Then the clouds began to glow. Faintly at first, but more and more brightly with each passing miǎo, as the fire, lava, storms, lightning, strange creatures and other forms of energy wreaking havoc on the surface leapt upward back into the clouds as if someone had summoned them all back, leaving the Mountain a cracked, broken, smoking and crumbling shell of itself.

The clouds were glowing like a noon crow now, casting brilliant light and sharp shadows as they churned furiously. Chún staggered in surprise as the Heaven and Earth vine suddenly released the shield, Essence streaming upward to join the rest of the energy in the pulsating mass of what almost looked like a storm composed of searingly bright Essence and Energy.

The young Teenager could feel a pressure emanating from that storm that easily crushed any strength he had ever felt before. Yet in his Essence Sense, he could see the World Tree was doing the same as the Heaven and Earth Vine - and elsewhere around the small moon, other streams of Essence joined them - presumably from other locations where high levelled Essence Constructs or perhaps even beasts had successfully held out against the onslaught.

In his Essence Sense, Chún could see the clouds all over the moon rolling back, swirling inward to an area around the World Tree, growing brighter as they concentrated. The sense of danger tripled then doubled again and he found himself shuddering in fear; if any of that energy hit the moon, his friend, there would not even be ashes left.

Through the link now though - he could only sense concentration and determination, but no fear.

The energy was now only entirely concentrated in a hundred li area - it almost looked like a small star hovering over their heads. The light from the sphere of energy completely blotted out the normal crow-light, bathing everything in a harsh blue-white, eye-searing, glare.

There was another soundless cry. Chún realised it came from the link just as the universe blinked.

It felt as if someone had struck a giant gong he had been standing on; every bone in his body felt like it had been struck individually. But he had no time for that, his focus was on the enormous pillar of energy - hundreds of times the size of the World Tree - and dwarfing every other strike combined that had struck out from the glowing calamity…

...on to one of the links of the mountain sized cast iron chain that pulled taunt above the World Tree.

The Chain swayed, glowing with energy as it lit up into the sky like a hanging lamp. Then slowly began to dull.

There was another strike at the same spot, twice the size of the previous. Chún blanked out momentarily from the backlash in his Essence sense and he clung to the staff in support, mindlessly continuing to pulse Essence into the rock below him.

Another strike, another… the repeated concussions came faster and faster leaving him reeling, just focusing on hanging on. Each strike was preceded by the cry of exertion, but they were coming so fast now, that he thought it was all blending into one sensation…

...break…

...break...break…

...break, break, break!

Break, Break, Break, Break!

BREAK. BREAK. BREAK!

Without realising it, Chún found himself mindlessly chanting along with the World's cry that reverberated through his being. Above his head he dimly realised he could hear Shé Yin hissing loudly along with him. The teen exerted some control over his thoughts, pushing his Essence sense back through the staff - which was now pulsing and glowing at the same rate as the cry of the World - and looked out.

Each cry was being matched by a larger and more powerful blast from the glowing 'star', which was flickering and shrinking visibly now. The targeted Chain was glowing incandescently into the sky, almost as bright as the energy globe and shaking as if it could not maintain its structure. The teen saw that the link the attacks were landing on glowed the brightest - and was beginning to stretch and deform

"Yes!" It must break, it must. He did not know why it was important for the Chain to break, but he - knew - that it was, at the same time. It must BREAK!

Chún focused his Essence Sense onto that stretching link. There was something…

Yes! The link split, the equivalent of a hairline crack appearing. The Chain shuddered.

The globe of energy shrank into a sphere a li wide, suddenly regaining and surpassing its previous brilliance. Its pressure soared and the winds howled as everything on the surface began to be s.u.c.k.e.d towards it - rocks, trees, boulders, soil, lava, water, ash. But Chún could only feel triumph flowing through the link as the glowing, roiling, sphere of power darted forward at unimaginable speeds towards the fracture in the chain link.

Its movement was accompanied by an ear rending thunder shock that slammed into Chún despite being underground and two thousand li away. Despite that, he grinned a bloody grin of victory as he clung to the staff and howled as the attack smashed directly onto the shatter-point.

The sound of the collision dwarfed the earlier noise. Chún was flung away from the staff and slammed into the wall of the cave as it rippled and surged like clay, crushing the breath out of his body as a fountain of lava shot up from the hot spring, instantly turning every drop of liquid in the cave into super-heated steam and filling the cave with toxic gases.

Everything that was not an Essence item still in the cave instantly caught alight and vaguely the young teen wondered if any of the items stored in his Cloak had survived.

But his mind was filled with the instant of impact and the simultaneous cry of every remaining living thing on the moon - including the triumphant cry of his locus itself.

BREAK FOR ME!