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Chapter 58: The Final Question [END OF BOOK 1]
🕑 Added 2023-01-03 18:53:26 +0000 UTCThere was a final question that had been eluding him, tantalizingly sitting just outside his grasp. The most effective of deceptions had a tendency to conceal themselves a little outside the realm of rationality, beyond the threshold of what most percieved as logical or even possible.
So Yao Shen asked himself the question.
What would practitioners of the earth consider worthy of their veneration?
The answer had been staring him in the face all this while.
What race did every human earth cultivator wish to surpass?
What race was endowed with a natural ability to manipulate the earth?
A bead of sweat ran down Yao Shen’s forehead, trickling past his eyes and falling onto the rocky cavern floor with a light splash, disturbing the tranquil stillness of the vast chamber that spilled out before him.
“Dwarven… Lumenite,” he uttered haltingly, the disbelief in his tone echoed out by the chamber, as if in mockery of his surprise.
The Ore of Light. The most volatile metal in existence. A possession that the Dwarves had never once traded to the outside world in its raw form, the only known mine nestled in the heart of the Dwarven Mountain Range, guarded by a third step cultivator. It was said that the artifacts and constructs traded by Dwarves to the outside world contained only trace amounts of forged Lumenite, but even that was enough to surpass anything the Azlak Plains were capable of replicating.
A weaker-willed cultivator would be rendered into a stupor upon being confronted with such a sight, but Yao Shen possessed the wherewithal to slowly inch backwards, refraining from any sudden movements. The chamber’s walls were encrusted by the aquamarine crystal ore, its protruding edges forming a brilliant kaleidoscope of ocean blue and sea green— Yao Shen could feel the thrum of qi pulsating within the crystalline ore, struggling to imagine the sheer energy that it had amassed after what seemed like centuries, if not millenniums of dormancy.
On the other hand, the concealed chamber’s soil displayed an interesting phenomenon— using his earth sense, Yao Shen could tell that it had been sapped of all minerals and nutrients, robbed of the ability to facilitate life; leaving behind only a blackened, seemingly charred husk of what once was an amalgamation of fertile soil and rock.
Yao Shen however was too focused on his retreat to notice the finer details— the chamber stretched on for atleast one Li in length, which was roughly a kilometer in Earth’s terminology. If this volume of Dwarven Lumenite was destabilized…. then Soul Emperor or not, he would not be able to survive the backlash and Yao Shen would not be surprised if the Earth Division was replaced by a steaming crater.
One of the most coveted resources in the world lay before him, yet all he could do was slowly retreat.
His expression gradually turned somber, as the consequences of this discovery pierced through his muddled thoughts.
This was a…. declaration of war.
If the truth of this matter ever got out, it would not just be the Dwarves that would come knocking at his doorsteps. An entire, untapped reserve of Lumenite, one of the primary reasons for Dwarven dominance in the hands of a force not yet powerful enough to guard it… it was basic geopolitics. Anyone who coveted the metal, had incentive to prevent the Dwarves from skyrocketing in strength or simply wanted a sample to study its strengths and weaknesses would turn the Azlak Plains into their proxy battlefield, jeapordizing everything that Yao Shen had been working towards.
He knew enough about the mindset of hegemons to know that cutting off the Earth Division would change nothing and only invite further suspicion— the boundaries and divisions made by the weak held little meaning for them. Besides, if there was one untouched mine in the region, who could be sure that there wouldn’t be others?
Yao Shen had only just stepped outside the chamber when his eyes flashed with a sharp glint. His right hand shot out, glowing with an earthen light as it intercepted a spike fashioned out of solid bedrock heading right for his abdomen.
“Kang Long,” Yao Shen snarled, the fury in his voice palpable as he clenched his fist hard, causing the earthen spike to shatter into hundreds of small pieces. The ambush held no real weight, most likely because a serious attack would risk destabilizing the lumenite. But that was not where his rage stemmed from. “What have you done?” he asked, the question poised more to his position as Patriarch of the Earth Division than his actions as an individual.
Kang Long slowly stepped outside the shadows, his demeanor unflappably calm as he walked with his hands clasped behind his back. “If it were anyone else that had made this discovery, and by anyone I truly do mean anyone, I would have been forced to kill them,” his voice echoed with gravitas in the cave gallery, as he kept walking forward unconcerned of retaliation. “But I cannot kill you. At most, I can disturb the lumenite and blow us both to smitheerens, but that would defeat the whole purpose of it,” Kang Long let out a weary sigh as he came to a stop a dozen or so meters before Yao Shen.
“I suppose I have failed my greatest responsibility as Patriarch, then,” Kang Long withdrew an ornate brush and a small inkpot from his Spatial Ring, but Yao Shen did not flinch at all. He already had a solid approximation of the sheer magnitude of volatile Qi trapped within the ore and knew that the consequences would be cataclysmic if it were to be purposefully set off.
Kang Long could not threaten him with that card.
“Will you let me repair the Greater Concealment rune whilst you pose your questions?” he asked, expression relaxed; as if he knew that Yao Shen would not refuse his request. Or rather, he couldn’t.
“Fine,” Yao Shen replied with some hesitance in his tone. “If you try anything, know that I will not stay my blade,” he added, his expression stoic.
A minute passed in silence as Kang Long began to apply the first touches to the rune, his brush imbued with Qi and the ink seemingly to be a spiritual plant infusion mixed with spiritual beast blood.
“You know, I never expected this moment to arrive during my tenure as Patriarch, but now that it has… I find it oddly relieving,” Kang Long painted a long stroke across the rune’s surface, letting him observe as the long gash running across its surface began to reknit itself.
“I will give you one chance to relay the truth. The selfishness of the Divine Mountain Sect has placed the entire Azlak region in grave danger, so don’t blame me for being ruthless if you insist on deceiving me,” Yao Shen warned.
“One day we must all answer for the sins of our ancestors, I suppose,” Kang Long replied rather crptically. “You are correct, of course. The truth implicates us all equally, so it is only just for you to know the entire tale, from its inception. Be forewarned though, for it is only my perception of the truth that I am capable of retelling.”
“That will suffice,” Yao Shen replied, still unsure how he felt of the events progressing in this manner. Would he have been better off not knowing? Perhaps. Now that pandora’s box had been unsealed though, there was no resealing it.
“Contrary to what many believe, contrary to what even most Elders of the Divine Mountain Sect believe, our sect did not originate in the Azlak Plains,” Kang Long began with a bombshell revelation.
Yao Shen chose to remain silent.
“Our beginnings came from about the last place you’d expect. A clan fleeing pursuit, from whom, I do not know. And I suspect that after three millenia, it matters not. After a century of hiding, in the aftermath of the Era of Turmoil, an ancestor of mine sought to create stability for his descendants. The Azlak Plains had a poor concentration of spiritual qi and limited resources, but there was plenty of unclaimed land for war-weary cultivators to start a new life with,” Kang Long slowly explained, his tone almost sounding regretful.
“I do not know if it was the work of a guiding hand, a stroke of fortune or simply an accident, but my ancestor and his fellow breathren discovered or perhaps, chanced upon, the cave system you find yourself in today. They were operating under the mistaken assumption that they had chanced upon an ancient dwarven inheritance, though they did find it rather bizarre that it would be situated in the middle of nowhere, as we both know, cultivators tend not to look too deeply into reversals of fate,” Kang Long paused to paint another line across the healing rune.
“What they found was beyond their imagination. A half-finished armor set forged entirely out of Dwarven Lumenite. An armor, that even in its incomplete state, was worth a hundred times more than their greatest possession. What they didn’t expect was a Dwarf Lord returning with a fresh haul of Lumenite, only to find his defenses dismantled and his cavern invaded. A fight ensued. A tragedy followed,” Kang Long let out a weary sigh, as he applied the final brushstroke. “Powerful as the Dwarf Lord was, he was on his lonesome, returning after a strenuous excursion. Neither side could allow the other to escape after the battle began. Four cultivators died before the Dwarf Lord was finally felled.”
“What of the Dwarven Mountains? Do they know of this matter?” Yao Shen finally interjected, finding it unlikely but still finding himself compelled to ask.
“My ancestor only found out more about the Dwarf Lord after his demise. His name was Vondar the Eccentric and he had been exiled from the Dwarven Mountain Range.”
“Why?”
“The Dwarves are of the belief that lumenite is a metal whose existence is rooted in Dwarven Ritual. That, due to their devotion to the Earth and the Mountain, the earth had blessed them with a metal native to their kind. Vondar challenged that belief, before, when he was known as Vondar the Scholar— one of the greatest to exist in dwarven history. He claimed that he could build an artifact that could track lumenity ore deposits and convinced his fellow scholars of the possibility.”
“It failed?” Yao Shen offered.
“Indeed, even after a decade of efforts and countless resources from the then Dwarven Emperor, his research yielded no results. The Dwarf who was once seen as a scholar and a prodigy was labelled a fraud who rebuked Dwarven values. He was exiled.”
“So they never bothered figuring out what happened to him. What a tragic waste of his genuis,” Yao Shen comisserated.
“If they had, they would have discovered that he had been right all along. The armor Vondar the Eccentric was forging was for his triumphant return to the mountain, the return that never was.”
”What happened afterwards?” Yao Shen asked.
“My ancestors personally had cave systems sealed upon being confronted with the horror of their own actions and the fear of Dwarven retribution that haunted them. To conceal their crime from ever seeing the light of day, the Divine Mountain Sect was founded upon the very land that held the entrance to the sealed cave systems. The detection artifact along with any artifact or construct that held Vondar’s Divine Sense Imprint exploded. His notes were preserved, but their complexity far exceeded my ancestor’s realm of understanding. The armor was either lost or stolen over a millennium ago, but details on that matter are both scarce and before my time.”
“This is indeed a riveting tale, Patriarch Kang Long. But surely you do not expect me to take your words at face value, especially when you claim that all of the Dwarven artifacts were conveniently lost and what was preserved holds no actionable value.
“I suppose not,” Patriarch Kang Long let out a defeated sigh. “Yao Shen, with this secret exposed….the fate of the Divine Mountain Sect rests in your hands. If I had any confidence in killing you, I would already have attacked. If trading my life for yours would be a viable outcome, I would do so without hesitation. With those two options ruled out, I can only point out that I never claimed that all the artifacts were lost,” Kang Long explicated.
“You mean…,” Yao Shen’s eyes widened in shock, truly not having expected this turn of events. Even if Kang Long had claimed to have lost all the artifacts, Yao Shen could truly not rule out that possibility. Three millenia was a long, long time even for a cultivator and the time period after the Era of Turmoil had seen many desperate rogue cultivators, fragmented remnants of sects and vengeance-fueled cultivators seeking resources. The cultivators of that era had little to lose and everything to gain, even the Sky Division had lost much of its ancient knowledge and resources to those frequent raids.
“With the information in your possession, you could approach the Dwarves and seek amnesty in exchange for the location of the mine. I know you can see through my intentions as I see through yours, Yao Shen. So let me be the one to tell you that my intentions are not pure— if I show you the remnant artifacts and let you take possession of them, you shall be an accomplice merely by not reporting to the Dwarves.”
“And in doing so, I would lose control of the Modern Sect, subjugate the Azlak Plains to a foriegn, non-human power that would tear it apart in search for this mythical ore and invite raids from the Demonic Path. In doing so, I would destroy everything that I stand for,” Yao Shen replied as he slowly walked over to Kang Long, resting the palm of his hand upon his shoulder.
“You underestimate me, Kang Long. You underestimate my resolve, you underestimate how far I am willing to go to manifest my ambitions into reality. This…,” Yao Shen’s free hand gestured to the almost completely repaired rune stretching across the resealed entrance. “.... might allow the Azlak Plains to rise beyond your greatest imagination. However, that is not its true significance,” Yao Shen’s voice lowered, as he continued, “Tell me, Kang Long, why did your ancestors choose to seal the cave?”
“Because they were afraid,” Kang Long replied and Yao Shen noticed how his posture tensed as he said those words aloud.
“They were afraid and exhausted, survivors of an Era whose horrors we can only imagine. But what are we? What is the Azlak Plains of today? Consumed by the inertia of endless politicking and meaningless infighting, we have been gnawing at each other for a pittance of resources, fueling our own decline. This ore is not significant on its own, but rather, it is a shared secret that allows us to rise to the greatest heights and fall to the lowest of lows as one,” Yao Shen let go of his shoulder, his expression losing solemnity.
“If it is a shared secret, if it is the threat of mutual destruction of our land that allows us to finally set aside our differences and move together towards the future as one, then so be it,” Yao Shen smiled, despite the increasingly uncertain future he was hurtling towards.
Patriarch Kang Long began to walk towards the cave galley’s exit, in an effort to hide the thrum of his beating heart, the light tremble of his hands.
He was….. Inspired? Him? The Stoic Patriarch of the Divine Mountain Sect renowned for his impenetrable defense swayed by the words of another leader? How… ridiculous.
Yao Shen silently walked behind him.
“Patriarch Yao Shen, will you be willing to answer a question of mine?”
“Please, Patriarch,” Yao Shen replied politely.
“What do you hope to achieve with the Modern Sect? What ambition drives you so, that you are willing to risk the wrath of the children of the earth? I seek not empty promises and vague platitudes, but the unadulterated truth,” Kang Long asked, his words echoed from the heart.
“The truth?” Yao Shen muttered aloud, as the relaxedly walked towards the exit of the sealed cave systems. “Very well,” he replied, taking a deep breath before he willed those words into speech.
“I wish to create a version of Ionea where the darkness of the Era of Turmoil can never resurface.”
The latter half of the sentence, Yao Shen thought was better off left unsaid.
“First Ionea, then the world.”
