Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

Dragging Chún behind it like a banner, the World Tree staff shot high up in the sky; piercing through the dusty and ash filled air like an arrow shot towards the World Tree. Although the fires and various other disasters had stopped, the air was still smelled of smoke and dust.

The World Tree loomed upward quickly as the Word Staff hurtled closer, covering the sky. But in his Essence Sense, Chún could see the ethereal mother-of-pearl links of the broken chain that hung raggedly down from some unknown place beyond the Heavens - each link dwarfing the World Tree.

Now that he was closer, he could see that the chain had once been embedded into the surface of the world was several hundred li beyond the World Tree - and not at the base of the World Tree as he had originally thought from a distance - but even from hundreds of li away, the immensity of the chain links of shimmering pearl made the World Tree seem an ordinary sized tree.

The wall of the crater that held the World Tree appeared quickly. Despite the height at which the World Tree staff was flying, Chún could tell that the crater had expanded like the rest of the Mountain and was now a vast basin - several times its earlier diameter - with much higher and thicker edges forming the 'cliffs' around it.

The World Tree staff stopped flying and fell like a thrown spear; they plummeted from the sky into the basin which was still awash with abundant plant life of all sizes, hues, colours and shapes. The World Tree must have protected the whole area despite being so close to the epicentre of the largest explosions - he could not imagine how that was even remotely possible.

He did notice that the massive levels of Essence that had caused him so much difficulty previously, were not currently present around the World Tree, despite the glow of Essence and Dao patterns that seemed to spread out from it as normal; he guessed all the local Essence had been expended shielding the basin.

Even the cliffs around the basin looked like ordinary rock at the moment, instead of Essence Crystal, which demonstrated how much energy the World Tree had spent and drained out of the surrounding area to shield the area from the severe damage visible elsewhere, despite being so close to the worst of it, but he still could not imagine - how - it had achieved it.

Given that the World Tree used to be his old staff he felt - probably inappropriately - proud of the fact that it had managed it, even though it had nothing to do with him.

The World Tree Staff embedded itself into the grass under the World Tree so hard that it vibrated like a tuning fork. Chún slammed into the ground at high speed beside it as he created a small personal crater and crumpled into a groaning pile of pain.

"Āiyō. Āiyō. Āiyō…" The young true Cultivator sat up slowly, rubbing his head in annoyance as he glared at his staff that was still vibrating in place. "What was that for?"

Brushing himself off, he stood up, taking a deep breath of clean air. Evidently the World Tree was purifying the air around it.

Looking around, he could see that in addition to the surviving flora, there were creatures everywhere. It seemed a substantial portion of the population of the Mountain had managed to make it to the crater, before the Tribulation had gotten to the stage of completely devastating everything in its path. Although he had no doubt that many had died in the tribulation, it was clear that enough had made it here to occupy nearly every available surface - log, tree, rock, grass or otherwise - in sight.

It was eerie to see so many normally fiercely territorial Essence Beasts placidly sharing the same territory with other Essence Beasts and ordinary creatures, with little more than the occasional token growl, squawk or snarl as someone was trod on or brushed against. In his Essence sense, he could see all of the flora and fauna absorbing that same pearl Essence that seemed to come from the broken chain.

Now that he was so close, he could see a fog of that pearl like Essence falling to the ground off of all the links, with the most coming off the links closest to the end. He could see the last link shaking slightly - which probably meant it would eventually shatter and send another wave of the odd Essence out as well.

Since it seemed to be a positive thing, he supposed he should be happy, but he only felt lost. For the last month, he had the Mountain in his thoughts and feelings - now he could barely feel the link. He had no idea what to do next.

A few cheerful chirps distracted him from his worries as a few of the flying glowing Essence creatures zoomed around his head.

He blinked and turned to look back towards the direction of the Heaven and Earth Vine, "Oh… I am sorry, I have not seen your friends since the storm started… I hope they are OK." He bowed apologetically towards the strange creatures, but they only chirped cheerfully again and zipped off somewhere else.

"I should have checked on them," he muttered to himself, "I did not see them in the Vine or the garden just then…" He took a step towards the crater's edge, although he could see it was now about a half-shi's travel at his highest speed to reach it.

There was a blur of movement and the World Tree staff thunked into the ground directly in front of his path, causing him to recoil and jump back a pace on reflex. "What…?"

He narrowed his eyes and took a step to the left, inching around the staff. It leaned in his direction, vibrating in what he could swear was a warning manner.

"I - can - cut you off," he responded with his own warning, decreasing the flow of his Essence to the staff slightly.

The staff slammed upright and the Dao patterns inside its black depths pulsed slightly, giving off a slightly abashed feeling. He was not quite sure how it was possible for a staff to look apologetic, but it seemed to be managing it.

He shook his head. "I just need to know what is going on,' he said quietly, "I am glad the World Tree was able to protect the valley, but it does not tell me what is happening. Or even if the little flying creatures survived. I am sort of responsible for them, since they were taking care of the garden. I do not even know how they are even flying around," he gestured towards some of the glowing Essence creatures as they zoomed cheerfully around the various plants and creatures, "the Mountain said they need high Essence levels to survive and the Essence does not feel high here at the moment."

"They are alive becausse of the Ccelesstial Esssencce," a familiar hissing voice spoke from behind him, "it iss good that you ssurvived, True Cultivator."

Chún stiffened and slowly turned around, bowing in the direction of the voice as he did so, "Your Majesty. I am also glad you are well."

There was an amused hiss from the large Flood Dragon as it reared above him from its large pile of coils. The teen noticed that the Sky Level Essence Beast had a familiar pattern of scorched and burnt scales flaking off its body, revealing much harder and tougher looking, pristine scales underneath.

"You were caught in the lightning as well, your Majesty?" he asked carefully, indicating the old skin that was sloughing off.

"Tribulation lightning and ffire iss very benefficcial for Cultivation iff one can withsstand and abssorb it," the large snake replied cheerfully, "esspeccially a.s.s I am inclined towardss the lightning Element. I wass able to advancce a minor rank before the tribulation level became too much ffor me to handle."

"So it - was - a Heavenly Tribulation for the Mountain? And, that explains what Shé Yin was doing staying next to the Silver Tree in the Immortals Cave while the tree was absorbing the lightning bolts collected by the Heaven and Earth Vine. I hope he is OK." Chún's words tumbled to a stop self-consciously, realising he was blathering.

"Yess, my sson iss ssimilar to me - the lightning benefitted him alsso. I wass alsso able to asssisst my Ssilver Tree in withsstanding the Heavenly Tribulation a.s.s well." The Flood Dragon's reply was amused.

"It was very destructive," responded the young teen True Cultivator with concern, "I can barely feel Mountain in the link and he is not responding to me." He waved his hands in frustration, "outside of here almost the whole world is destroyed - I think my friend was almost killed! I do not understand why the Heavenly Tribulation occurred - I thought tribulations were a punishment for going against the natural Dao? The Mountain would never use broken techniques to advance - it was always telling me about following your own Dao!"

The Flood Dragon let out hissing laughter, "You think it iss natural for a Mountain to become a Treasure Land and then a ssmall moon insside a ssecret realm within a ssingle month?" The Flood Dragon dropped its head down to Chún's height and turned its head to fix him with one giant eye.

Chún blanched and stepped back, his voice cracking nervously, "...nèige… I do not actually know… I was only an orphan street rat last month…" he looked away and scratching his head responded quietly, "...nèige… I guess it is strange… but it is not like I ever had reason to question this rate of advancement."

The enormous snake raised its massive head up, snorting. "Humph. It normally takess millionss of yearss and many lucky cchanccess. Even if the Mountain hass not technically broken itss Dao, it hass advancced unnaturally ffasst."

The majestic snake paused and sighed, "Sso when it re-esstablisshed a sstable connection to the Heavenss that are itss birthplacce, thosse Heavenss ssought to tesst itss worthinesss to risse from a Mountain, to a moon in itss own sseperate realm.

The Flood Dragon shook its head helplessly, sounding resigned, "Normally, ssuch testss are sspread out over millionss of yearss of sslow progresssion, but beccausse the Mountain had already triggered sso many testss with itss rapid advanccement - and beccausse the testss had been building up while the Mountain wass issolated from Planet Golden Crow - they all arrived at oncce."

The young teen blinked. "But then, why did the Mountain have me build a stable connection to planet Golden Crow? Did it not know this was going to happen?"

The Flood Dragon swayed meditatively from side to side, "What did the Mountain tell you?"

Chún thought back to the conversations. "...nèige…it said something about not having enough water… not being able to have proper weather to keep everything alive…"

"The Mountain had no choice - it needed the connection sstablissed or eventually it would have dried up and died anyway," the Flood Dragon said as gently as a hundred armspan long snake could, "It gambled - it hoped it would ssurvive - with your help."

"Because of the True Cultivator effect," realised the young teen, "but it was going badly, was it not?"

"Yess," agreed the snake, "sso your friend took a cchance - and with a great effort redirected the power of the Heavenly Tribulation - to change their Dao."

Chún rocked back in astonishment, "Change its Dao? How is it possible?"

"It sstruck and broke one of the Nine Chainss of Heaven," the Flood Dragon swayed, contemplatively.

"A.s.s it had become a sseperate Realm it had the right to challenge the Heaven that it iss bound to - to become a new Heaven in itss own right." The snake's tail flicked restlessly as it explained, "To Cultivate ffrom a minor Realm into a Heaven, a realm musst make nine sseperate attemptss to break one of the Nine Chainss of Heaven that hold it bound to the Heaven it wass born from."

The Flood Dragon stabbed the point of its tail towards the shattered length of immense chain that hung from the sky, "ffail an attempt and the Heaven will desstroy you a.s.s punisshment; ssucceed and then the Realm changes itss Dao to sstart a new path of becoming an independent Heaven of itss own - or continue the path, if it hass already broken itss firsst chain."

The Flood dragon lifted its head to look up at the behemoth chain of mother-of-pearl Essence that hung from the sky. "Celesstial Esssencce is coming from the sshattered chain - it iss healing and sstrengthening the new Heaven."

"Oh." Chún nodded with bemus.e.m.e.nt, "so the Mountain is Cultivating along with me… does that mean the Mountain will be stronger since it succeeded in breaking one of the chains?"

The large snake nodded imperiously, "The World iss full ssized now and hass ssuccceeded in esstablisshing itss Firsst Heaven. It will take a few dayss, but the World will awaken. Do not worry about your friend - it took a great rissk to change a calamity into victory and won."

Chún thought of something and he looked up with a concerned face, "If we are our own Heaven now, are we... still connected to Golden Crow?"

"I believe sso," replied the Flood Dragon, "Oncce the World awakenss it will be ssafe to check, but there are sstill eight other Chainss binding uss to Golden Crow Heaven - thiss Heaven is only at the equivalent of a Mortal Rank Cultivator - if we are to think of it in termss of the Cultivation we are ussed to."

"I am fortunate that you know so much," said Chún, bowing in gratitude, "Without the Mountain guiding me I was at a loss."

"I am old and have sseen much," replied the Flood Dragon, bobbing its head in gracious acceptance, "but even ffor me, thiss wass new. Iff it wass not ffor Dragon Blood Memoriess, I would not know either."

"How long has it been since the Heavenly Tribulation? And do you know how many days it will take for the World to awaken?" asked the teen tentatively.

"It remainss the ssame day as the tribulation," responded the Flood Dragon a touch of irritation entering its hissing, "and I do not know. I know a couple more chain linkss will be enough to make mosst of the new Planet livable and then we can leave thiss placce. But I do not know how long before your friend awakenss." The large snake moved abruptly away, heading towards a disturbance where a number of Beasts were milling about.

"Well," said the True Cultivator as he watched the Flood Dragon breaking up whatever dispute was occurring in the distance, "I suppose he has to make sure things do not get out of hand with everyone crowded together like this." He looked up at the shimmering chain links that hung out of the sky, "Heaven's Chains and Celestial Essence, en? Well, I suppose Mountain will be able to explain more when it wakes."

He looked at the World Tree staff. "Is this what you wanted to bring me here for?"

There was no response from the staff. Chún rolled his eyes and looked up at the World Tree, then around at the scene around him. Everyone seemed to be Cultivating, he could see that everyone was drawing in as much of the Celestial Essence as possible from the shattered chain. "Celestial… I guess that explains why it looks like glowing pearl stuff..."

Quietly he walked over to the staff and grabbed hold of it, looking like he had a length of the night sky in his hand, then sat down. Exhaling out his worries and stress he released his cloak - which shimmered faintly on his body without making a big spectacle of billowing Essence mist - and relaxed into the faint but familiar pulse of the World in his Essence Sense. This close to the Chain of Heaven, he could also hear a soft chiming sound as the links rubbed together and slowly disintegrated.

The sounds were comforting and he relaxed into a deep meditative state, slowly losing track of time as he pulled the new type of Essence into his body. The new Essence was very potent, but gentle, washing his bones and marrow. Remarkably, given the amount of tempering he had already been through, it cleaned out impurities and healed damage he did not realise was there.

Eventually another link shattered, sending a potent wash of the Essence through him and saturating his body and Essence with it. He spent a long time slowly balancing the new Essence with his existing Dao, slowly making it a natural part of his Dao.

More links shattered and he was dimly aware through his Cultivation of the Essence Beasts and other creatures leaving. He supposed that he had been there a long time, but his Dao was making clear that he must learn to generate this new Essence before the chain finished breaking, or he would run out of it without a source.

And given it was now part of his Dao - that would be bad.