MatHaz
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Chapter 171: Weight
🕑 Added 2022-05-02 11:55:01 +0000 UTC~~~
“Do you feel that person over there?”
Liu Jin’s heart drops when Xun Hunwen casually points to where Senior Brother Guo and the others are. Even that seemingly harmless gesture could kill them all if Xun Huwen wished for it.
“Of course, you do. You had hopes in him until a few moments ago. I don’t blame you for it. He’s strong. Many Sects in the Crimson Cloud Empire would feel their future is assured with someone like him in their ranks. Even if we’re speaking of the Four Great Sects,”--Xun Huwen snorts--“he’s decently remarkable. However, he’s made not a single move to approach this place since I showed up. He was coming this way, you know? But as soon as he sensed me, he stopped.”
Xun Huwen’s words sting, but Liu Jin cannot blame Senior Brother Guo for showing common sense. Even with the increased physicality given to him by the treatment he and Senior Brother Luo developed, Senior Brother Guo is no match for Xun Huwen. Trying to fight him would just lead to his death.
“And that’s exactly why he fails.”
“Anyone would rightly hesitate to face you!” Liu Jin shouts despite how much it hurts him to do so. “There is no failure in that.”
“Wrong.” Xun Huwen sighs and shakes his head. “You should know better, junior. Let’s see, maybe you’re confused by all this noise. Let’s remove it.”
Xun Huwen snaps his fingers, and the world around them vanishes. The Qi, the noise, the scents. Liu Jin can no longer feel any of it. It is as if he’s suddenly in a completely different place.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Xun Huwen rubs his chin as he looks around. “It is small, but not many people are capable of creating their own spatial realm, not that I am creating anything. I am also not good enough to completely remove us from the outside world yet. You can see the battle if you turn your head enough, though I don’t recommend doing so. The way your body is, you might just break your neck.”
Prompted by his words, Liu Jin immediately creates more Qi snakes to support his neck and other weak areas of his body.
Xun Huwen laughs. “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You’re still struggling. Deep down, you don’t believe you are dead. I can feel your very existence desperately trying to be acknowledged. But no, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Things have an order for a reason, even if it is a stupid reason. When I created this spatial realm, the first thing you noticed was missing wasn’t the wind or the noise or even the lovely smells. It was the Qi. That’s normal. The ability to sense Qi is a useful one, so we rely on it to the point it begins to supplant all our other senses. You’re probably at that point or close to it already.”
Liu Jin looks away. He has had this feeling for a while, but it is as if Xun Huwen can see right through him.
“However, useful is all it is. Qi is not the deciding factor in cultivation. Just look at Lady Ling. She sensed my Qi and had the audacity to believe herself my superior. All because she is in the Ninth Level of the Heaven Realm while I am in the first. The same thing is happening here. That disciple feels my Qi and believes himself to have no chance against me.”
Xun Huwen’s eyes bore into his.
“Isn’t that the stupidest thing?”
Liu Jin frowns. “Are you… are you speaking of Dao?”
Xun Huwen’s face noticeably brightens. “Oh, good. You know that much. But no. I am speaking of the weight of our existence. A Dao is… an after effect. A consequence of proper cultivation.”
Liu Jin blinks. A consequence?
“Lady Ling might be in a higher cultivation realm than me, but my existence is infinitely heavier than hers. I matter more than her, so a reality where she can defeat me does not exist.”
I matter more.
Liu Jin stares at Xun Hunwen. The older disciple just said something impossibly outrageous.
“Confused? Let’s see, the old man of the Infinite Mountain once said our existence is like gravity. He’s a bit of a bore, but he has the right idea. When we cultivate, people think we’re just cultivating Qi. Taking it from our surroundings, using it to refine our bodies so they may better use Qi, and so on. Worthless people like that are the norm.”
Xun Hunwen holds out his palm. Two blue spheres of Qi appear on top of it.
“Think of these two orbs as cultivators.”
Suddenly, a myriad of smaller red orbs appear around them.
“And these are opportunities. I am not speaking figuratively here,” he adds, noticing Liu Jin’s confusion. “When I say opportunities, I mean exactly that. Being at the right time to overhear an important conversation. Impressing a local, affluent person. Encountering an old man who gives you good cultivation advice. Stumbling upon an old manual. Rescuing a beautiful damsel. Being chosen for a task allows you to reap great rewards. Those opportunities are always out there waiting for people to grab them. Just by looking at the orbs, you’d think these two people have an equal chance of reaching these opportunities, but look at what happens if we change things a little..”
One of the spheres suddenly grows brighter and bluer than the other. As it does, the smaller red orbs are pulled into its orbit. The “opportunities” are no longer within equal reach of both cultivators.
“You’re probably thinking something like, ‘Naturally, the stronger cultivator has greater odds of seizing the opportunities around him,’ but it goes far beyond that. He’s not trying. He’s not doing. They’re inevitably being pulled towards him. It is because of-”
“The weight of our existence,” Liu Jin mutters, looking at Xun Huwen’s projection. He wishes he didn’t, but he understands exactly what Xun Huwen is trying to convey.
“Exactly!” Xun Huwen grins approvingly. “We do not cultivate our bodies. We do not cultivate Qi. We cultivate our very existence, and the more refined it is, the heavier it becomes. Heaven’s Will no longer has any say on our paths. Instead, we are the ones that bring our will into the world. Our words are the ones with weight. Our acts are the ones that matter. Everyone and anything else is nothing but fodder.”
“You are wrong…” Liu Jin glares. “You are not...”
Because if Xun Huwen is truly, intrinsically more important as a person, then what does that make everyone else?
What does it mean for the thousands of people that live at the whims of the strong?
Is he supposed to accept they are nothing but fodder?
“Is that so?” Xun Huwen asks. “Then how are you here?”
“What?”
“How did you recover from my attack when it should have left you in bed for several weeks? How did you survive in the Dead Plains when it has killed several cultivators in higher realms than you? How did you reach the True Realm so quickly? How did you face the fleshcrafter’s technique and take it as your own? How are you standing before me once more?”
Xun Huwen’s finger slowly comes down until it points at Liu Jin’s head.
“Do you understand what I have been trying to tell you, junior? Clashes between cultivators are not clashes of Qi but clashes of existence. You have survived so far because the weight of what you have cultivated refuses to submit to the world around you. Can you feel it? Your existence clashing against mine? Can you rage and scream until the Heavens themselves have no choice but to allow you to continue existing?”
Distortions begin spreading around them.
“If you can’t accomplish something so simple, you’ll die right here.”
~~~
Lu Mei is not amused.
Ever since she made contact with Feng Hao, her condition has rapidly improved. That being the case, she has to wonder why she is not out there making sure she and Jin have a way to escape ready for when all inevitably goes poorly.
Jin won’t leave without the Young Master, so she would have to knock Feng Hao out first, something easily accomplished. The girl from the Exploration Division, Fan or something, would give her a bigger challenge, but with the Eternal Flame and a potential hostage on her side, a bigger challenge is all it would be. Hardly an insurmountable one.
And yet, she is following along. Walking deeper into a dark temple full of stale air, unreasonably sinuous passages, and unfamiliar Spirit Beasts, many of which she has already killed. All at the whims of a child!
It is not because she feels whatever it is that he is feeling.
Certainly not because the Eternal Flame within her is telling her to keep going.
Not at all.
“What is this place?”
“The inner sanctum of the temple,” comes the useless reply from Fan. The girl walks with her eyes firmly on the walls, occasionally running her hands over their surface. It is a miracle that she has yet to trip.
“It seems I was wrong about this place. Or rather, I was looking at an incomplete picture. I believed this to be a place of worship, a sanctuary of sorts.”
“We do call it a temple,” Lu Mei points out dryly.
“Yes, but there is more to it. The carvings in the upper levels are older than many of the ones inside.”
There is an unspoken request for a question in her voice, but Lu Mei refuses to give her the satisfaction. Feng Hao looks like he is about to, but a simple shake from Lu Mei’s head stops him.
The stare Fan gives them in return is probably the closest she has come to glaring.
“The walls down here were not meant to have writings on them. Not all of them, at least. People started writing on them because they needed a way to leave a record behind. Something happened.” She frowns and squints at the walls. “A war, most likely, but perhaps not. Cataclysm might be the best word for it. It seems this place became a stronghold.”
“So? The Dead Plains exists because a cataclysm ravaged these lands and everything beyond it. Scholars have been theorizing it for ages.”
Not that Lu Mei cares about such things, but as a proper lady of the Red Sky Pavilion, her education required her to learn about it.
Lu Mei wonders what it says about her that she much preferred her mother’s lessons.
“Not the lands beyond it.”
“What?”
“Not the lands beyond it,” Fan repeats. “What lies beyond the Dead Plains wasn’t ravaged. Our lands were.”
Lu Mei and Feng Hao both blink.
“But that’s not the important part.”
“Oh, it absolutely is!” cries Lu Mei.
Does she not understand? If their lands were the ones ravaged, that means the lands beyond the Dead Plains, should there be any, are the ones with greater untouched history!
“It’s close!” Feng Hao shouts. He is almost bouncing in place, and to her annoyance, Lu Mei can feel it too. “We’re almost there!”
Before either can say anything, Feng Hao takes off into the unknown.
“Young Master, wait!” Fan shouts, going after him. “You cannot just go on your own.”
Despite her warning, Fan doesn’t stop him, a sure sign there are no traps ahead of them. Feng Hao leads them on a series of turns throughout the long, sinuous passages of the temple until he arrives at his goal.
A blind corridor.
“No,” Feng Hao says. He looks around, his hands frantically touching the wall as if he couldn’t believe it was real. “There has to be something. It’s here! I know it is.”
“Young Master.” Under the girl’s usual monotone, Lu Mei can detect a hint of sympathy. “There’s nothing here.”
Lu Mei sighs.
“Look again.”
Fan blinks in surprise.
“Whatever it is he’s feeling, I feel it too,” Lu Mei continues, crossing her arms and adopting a well-practiced look of disdain. “Surely, the Exploration Division will not object to exploring?”
“This is hardly the time for such…” she trails off as she looks at the wall beyond Lu Mei. Fan immediately walks past her, almost pushing her out of the way in her rush. “That is not the right pattern…”
The girl kneels, using her hands to feel the carvings on the walls. The look on her face is of intense concentration.
“Young Master!” she says, looking back at Feng Hao. “The floor!”
“I found it!” Feng Hao cries out happily as he pushes one of the tiles under them.
A soft click reaches their ears, and Lu Mei immediately braces for a trap. None comes. The wall rolls out of the way and reveals a room behind it.
“A hasty addition,” Fan Bingbing says as they walk inside. “That wall must have been placed during the last days, but why were you and the Young Master the ones who found this? The Feng Clan has sent people here before. If the Eternal Flame was all that was required, surely that requirement should have been met centuries ago.”
“I am sure I have no idea what you are talking about,” Lu Mei says.
“Of course not,” Fan says. “My mistake. Regardless, something must have happened. A requirement must have been fulfilled in some way.”
“Does it matter? Perhaps the moon is in the right place. Perhaps the sun is. The question is whether this will be worth it or not.”
Fan looks like she is about to say something, but Feng Hao speaks before she can.
“Look!” Feng Hao cries happily. The flames around him grow in intensity to illuminate the entire room. “This is it!”
A large golden monolith stands at the center of the room. Even before Feng Hao pointed it out, they had already sensed the power radiating from it. It is faint, yet there is something ancient and deep about it. Power like that is something they desperately need right now.
Unfortunately, there is an issue.
“There is a barrier around it,” Lu Mei points out.
A golden field surrounded the monolith. Though they had not sensed it while they were outside the room, now that they are inside, it is impossible to ignore.
“Unsurprising,” Fan says, approaching the barrier but never doing something so foolish as to touch it. When Feng Hao attempts to do so, she immediately bats his hand away. “This is what I wanted to tell you about. This place was repurposed to fight a war. The walls outside would have made a poor defense for the cataclysm described. It must have had some other means of defense… and of attack.”
“Then it’s a weapon!” Feng Hao cries out excitedly. “We can help with this!”
“That’s one possibility,” Fan admits. “However...”
“We don’t have the power to break the barrier,” Lu Mei says, all while trying to ignore the voice telling her she should reach out and take hold of what is in front of her.
“Feng Hao!”
It is as if the sun has entered the room. Fan Bingbing shields her face with her arms and raises her Qi. Despite being in a lower realm of cultivation, Lu Mei faces no such hardships, though she will not go as far as to say Feng Zhi’s presence is easy to bear.
“You!” He says, glaring at her with such fury that Lu Mei takes a moment to review all her misdeeds and ponders in what way she has wronged him.
It is a long moment, but she finds herself innocent for once.
“Brother!” Feng Hao cries out. “We need your help.”
“What we need is for you to leave this place!” Feng Zhi says, stomping over to him and grabbing him by the wrist. “Do you have any idea how much danger you are in right now?”
“Yes!” Feng Hao says, trying to shake himself free. A futile struggle until a golden spark forces Feng Zhi away. “I feel it clearly! But please, listen!”
Feng Zhi looks shocked, but it barely lasts a second. “There’s no time!”
It is clear to Lu Mei that Feng Zhi will not listen to Feng Hao. It is not that he has somehow missed the monolith radiating power in the center of the room. He simply doesn’t care about it. Nothing matters to him beyond taking Feng Hao away.
Lu Mei makes a choice.
“Young Master Feng Zhi!” Lu Mei snaps at him. “Focus!”
“Do not interrupt! This does not concern…”
He trails off, anger gradually giving way to surprise and shock. It is only natural.
For the first time, Lu Mei calls on the Eternal Flame in the direct presence of a member of the Feng Clan.
“Your brother is trying to tell you something. It would be in everyone’s best interests for you to listen.”
The barrier might be too strong for them, but with Feng Zhi…
“Brother,” Feng Hao says. “I understand that you want to protect me. I could have died when I ran away. I know that now. I was reckless. If you don’t want to listen to your reckless younger brother, then at least listen to the Eternal Flame inside us. You want to protect me? Here’s something that can do that.”
With Feng Zhi’s help, it might just be possible.
Lu Mei holds her breath as Feng Zhi finally turns to the barrier and the monolith inside.
~~~
Xun Huwen’s spatial realm shatters around them.
The outside world comes back in full force, and with it, something new. A golden radiance spreads throughout the entire battlefield.
Liu Jin screams.
The light ravages his body with binding intensity. It isn’t just him. All the foul beasts attacking them are annihilated one by one. Even the ones he controls are destroyed by the light.
Only the humans are left untouched.
Only he is the exception.
“Well, isn’t that interesting?” Xun Huwen says, looking down on him as the light sears what little flesh Liu Jin has left. “Would you look at that? All the monsters are being killed, yet I am whole, and you are not.”
Liu Jin grits his teeth and finds the strength to glare at Xun Huwen. The light burns, but it starts doing something else as well.
It heals.
His wounds heal. His bones bend. His flesh and muscles regrow. Then they’re burned again. Heal and burn. Burn and heal. Liu Jin’s body is fulminated by light and repaired several times in a single second. Xun Huwen could easily kill him, but he seems content to watch him scream, to wait and see whether the light will kill him or save him.
When Liu Jin finally collapses on the ground, he’s tired and wounded, yet whole. At the very least, it seems all his bones are inside his body this time.
The light is done with him, it seems.
“I am impressed,” Xun Huwen says. “Still, that is just one requirement cleared. What will you do about this?”
The distortion around Xun Huwen spreads to swallow Liu Jin whole. There is nothing he can do to dodge under his own power.
Senior Brother Guo saves him instead.
The Earth Realm disciple appears out of nowhere, dashing with all his strength to carry him out of the way.
“Senior Brother Guo!” Liu Jin shouts with worry. The Earth Realm disciple might have saved him, but who will save him?
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the coward who was too scared to approach me,” Xun Huwen says as he immediately cuts Senior Brother Guo’s escape route.
“You speak the truth,” Senior Brother Guo says. “However, this speed was granted to me by the efforts of my juniors. What is the point of it if I fail to use it to save one of them?”
“Interesting.” Xun Huwen says. “But pointless.”
Senior Brother Guo’s legs are gone.
In an instant. In the blink of an eye, everything below his knees disappears. Senior Brother Guo screams and falls, and Liu Jin falls along with him.
“Is this it?” Xun Hunwen asks, slowly walking up to them. “How disappointing.”
Lightning strikes.
For a moment, everyone stops. Even Xun Huwen’s calm is broken. The power upon them does not belong to a cultivator in the Earth Realm or even in the Heaven Realm.
It is the power of a Renegade.
“It seems we meet again.”
“Duke…” Liu Jin whispers as he sees the Renegade he ran into during his first days in the Dead Plains. His eyes widen further when he sees who is next to him. “Lei Kong..”
“My lord!” Lei Kong cries out as he rushes to his side. “What have they done to you, my lord?”
“So this is the one, then? I had a feeling.” The Duke turns to face Xun Huwen. “Whatever your designs, it seems I must keep this one alive for now. Leave.”
Xun Huwen laughs.
Even though he is face to face with a Renegade, Xun Huwen dares to laugh. Liu Jin is not sure whether that speaks of bravery or madness.
“I see! I see! Of course!” Xun Huwen holds his gut as he tries to get himself under control. So great is his laughter he even wipes a tear from his eye. “I understand. It seems I no longer have any role left to play. Not here or on our side of the Dead Plains.”
The Duke raises an eyebrow. “You believe yourself capable of crossing? I gave you the courtesy of words, but it seems I have met a madman. Very well, if you wish to kill yourself, I shan’t interrupt.”
He is going to let him go.
He is going to let him go!
The realization chills Liu Jin to the core. He wants to shout and scream at the Duke that he should kill Xun Huwen right now, but multiple wracking coughs cut him off. Perhaps, it is a good thing they do. The Duke is not his ally. There is no telling how he’d react to being ordered.
Even if he did decide to kill Xun Huwen, that might not necessarily be for the best. A single attack from a Renegade could devastate this area. Even if the Duke decided to show an uncharacteristic amount of restraint for his Realm, Xun Huwen wouldn’t. Not with his life on the line. His dying gaps might kill them all.
“This is goodbye for now, junior,” Xun Huwen says, bending and waving goodbye at him. “I will be taking the next step. It is up to you to decide whether you wish to follow one day.”
Xun Huwen vanishes, and the battlefield is left silent. The disciples are too scared to speak in the presence of a Renegade, and the beasts have all been annihilated by the barrier. Even the Dead Qi outside begins meandering away after a few breaths.
The battle is over, and they have survived.
~~~
AN
Mini-Character List
Liu Jin: Our Protagonist. Alive.
Xun Hunwen: Elder Xun's grandson. About to leave to the other side of the Dead Plains. Happy to be proven right.
Lu Mei: Liu Jin's girlfriend. Taking risks. Might regret them.
Feng Hao: Lord Feng Gui's son. Feeling useful. Feeling older.
Fan Bingbing: Friend of Liu Jin. Disciple of the Exploration Division. Has been through a learning experience.
Feng Zhi: Feng Hao's brother. Very surprised for several reasons.
Senior Brother Guo: A disciple of the Armory. Happy he still has his hands.
The Duke: A wandering Renegade. Has now business with Liu Jin.
Lei Kong: A former member of Murong Bang's army. Will serve Liu Jin till his dying day.
Comments
Silverias
That might literally be what Mud does. He is just Mud, why would he ever be important or have any metaphysical weight.
A K
Although, I wonder how much of this is a result of the dao he cultivates. We know Dao has an effect on the world, is this just proof of his dao? If someone at an equal level cultivated the opposite would his "weight" theory not work?
A K
I absolutely love stories that incorporate protaga-power into an in-story element. Especially when that element can be used by anyone, both the good guys and the bad guys. The first time I ran into this was reading the Zombie Knight Saga and it's handled really well there too. Is this a regular thing in Xianxia stories? I know this is supposed to be a cliche xianxia story
MasterofNova
It was said that once a cultivator learns how to control their soul (usually in the spirit realm) they are able to force their body to take the shape of their soul, so they can theoretically heal from dismemberments as long as their wounds haven’t scarred their soul permanently.
Catherine
I’m not sure if Xun Huwens theory is entirely correct but I don’t think he’s completely wrong either. It makes a kind of sense. Also just because a cultivator with greater weight receives more opportunities nothing says they have to take them or that even if they do that they will make the most of them.
Catherine
At what point can cultivators heal dismemberment? If I remember correctly cultivators in the heaven realm can bring themselves back to life from only a scrap of soul even if their body is completely destroyed. If a cultivator has lost a limb before reaching the heaven realm will they be able to regrow it once they reach that point? Also what about the use of healers? Presumably very powerful healers can restore limbs?
MasterofNova
To me at least that seems like the point. We’re reading about the interesting ones, the 1% and because they are the one percent they are special in ways the 99% aren’t. Even looking outside of our Mc, the other stereotypical wuxia Protag, Huang Shing has thrived while his peers and rivals (outside of Liu Jin) have been stagnate or have grown in minor ways in comparison. In this verse atleast it seems very likely that Xun’s theory is correct because in a very meta sense he is correct.
Blahful
I think I can ask a question in turn. Assume that infinite monkeys are typing. Matt happens to be just one. Will you read the one where Jin was a peasants son, and died at his school? The point is that in the vast number of possibilities, this MC got lucky and that's why we're following this story. I mean, I'm lucky to have a roof and a job, I could've been born a peasant in real life. Xun Huwen hasn't read probabilities, and is afflicted with selection bias. The die gets rolled infinite times each second, we're only looking at the interesting ones.
MasterofNova
See like the entirety of what you just wrote could be considered forms of plot armor. 1. Your complete dismissal of Lady Lings power when she’s 8 levels above him is a bit outrageous to me and then comparing that 1v1 to what Liu Jin and his crew did (I.e using their environment, poison and a legion of higher realmed spirit beasts to whittle the guy down to land the killing blow) seems incredibly biased and disingenuous. Also without Liu Jin’s knowledge that he obtained from a literal fallen deity they would not have been able to make it to the temple let alone survive the core disciple. 2. The fact that he lived at all could be considered plot armor because surviving outrageous stakes is all that’s really needed to classify it. The fact that he had the opportunity to do so only reinforces his point. 3. The only reason Liu Jin survived was from knowledge and skilled obtained through his fallen god of a master. If you don’t consider that plot I would really love to know how. 4. Again this comes to the whole opportunities afforded him because of his existence as the son of the late Black Dragon. If it wasn’t for his father he wouldn’t have had his master or have gained the interest of the Renegade Duke. If you disagree with that please tell me why.
darren tay
Xun Huwen: Do you believe in Gravity?
almostNEET
Yes! This is exactly what I felt but couldn't articulate.
burning_the_paper
Xun Hunwen's whole argument relies on a lot of misconceptions, biases and fallacies: 1) He says he's got mystical plot armor because he was able to easily deal with Feng Hao's mother - which is really nothing extraordinary since she's not actually a warrior and likely hasn't been in an actual fight in decades, and also because we've seen plenty of other people successfully defeat people with a higher cultivation level - Hell, Liu Jin's friends are even more impressive because they manage to fight and win against people in a whole other cultivation realm. If he had really wanted to test his theory why didn't he try challenging one of the patriarch's sons that are in the Emperor realm? Surely his plot armor would have saved him from that predicament as well? 2) He then further claims that he's survived for so long because of plot armor, but in truth they didn't cut his head off simply because he's the last living relative Elder Xun has. Also, you have to be quite insane to think rotting in a cell fro 200 to 300 years is proof of plot armor. 3) He says Liu Jin is like him because he survived his blow and then quickly recovered, when in truth Liu Jin was basically dead and only his extensive medical knowledge and skill saved him. If you go around punching people and then pretend the one that survived is proof of plot armor that's already a weak argument, since statistically at least some of them are going to survive. 4) He claims that Liu Jin survived the trials in the Dead Plains due to plot armor too, but we know he survived because he was able to make people work together. Even his rescue by Guo and now the Duke is because of the bonds he forged - Liu Jin is kind to people and many choose to pay with kindness in return. Basically, it seems to me that Hunwen has an inflated opinion of himself and believes to be special.
Guy Incognito
Interesting, while there's jokes to be made about plot relevance vs being an extra here Xun Hunwen said something interesting here. That it seems to be one's fundamental audacity and willpower, their sheer drive as they cultivate to force the world to listen to them. Which leads to things like typical protagonist opportunities becoming available to them. That existential value is increased by cultivating kinda makes sense, but at the same time it leads me back to the Forest of Deceitful Whispers. Where one man audaciously struck out to try and find opportunity after years of defiance and planning yet was proven a lunatic for it. Is that not a contradiction? Did he not rely exactly on what Xun Hunwen is saying, that no matter how poor an area you're in there will be opportunities?
burning_the_paper
I don't think there's any such force at work. That elder of the opposing clan in New Moon village also thought he was gifted with outrageous luck, only to suffer an ignominious death in the end.
burning_the_paper
The answer is simple - blind dumb luck. Recall the whole saga in New Moon Town and what the chief of the opposing sect had to say - why did he succeed and get so far despite facing every possible disadvantage? To quote: “A man who is considered trash finds an otherworldly item that helps him gain great power. The disciple of a lowly Sect has an unexpected encounter with a master who bestows him with a Heaven-defying cultivating technique. A child challenged by someone much stronger than him somehow overcomes the difference in a single night. Stories like that are told all over the continent. There is not a single person who hasn’t heard a tale like that.” “Have you never found it odd? In their time of greatest need, those people are not saved by their actions but by their luck. However, it makes perfect sense. To cultivate is to go against the Will of Heaven. It is impossible to prevail by our actions alone. The only way to prevail is by Heaven-defying luck.” Granted, they're both talking about similar concepts, that there's some unseen force operating in the background that lets them get away with outrageous schemes, but it's simple survivor bias doing the talking, "I survived therefore I'm favored by the Heavens, I have plot armor, I am the protagonist of this story." On a meta level we know that Xun Hunwen is right, at the very least when it comes to Liu Jin, he has and will survive because otherwise the story ends - but he seems to apply the same sort of status to himself, when we already have one concrete example of another guy thinking the same and ending up dead. Also, while Liu Jin does have plot armor, there's always a logical explanation. As for the Duke arriving at that precise moment? Again, happy happenstance for Liu Jin. What would have happened in Xun hadn't decided to prattle on like a card carrying supervillian, what if the necromancer hadn't been a manchild and tried to wipe out the disciples as quickly as possible, with if Guo hadn't summoned the courage to jump in at the last moment and save Liu Jin, what if Liu Jin himself was a lesser cultivator and had succumbed to the trials he faced sooner? We can believe the words of a madman high on his own farts, or we can simply acknowledge that a large part of why some cultivators are successful and some are not is blind, dumb luck. They're constantly putting themselves in danger to become more powerful, so of course that do survive will start to believe themselves blessed. Just like in our world, the good guys do not always win, the bad guys do not always lose, the righteous do not always prosper, the wicked do not always fail. Just because I may reach the ripe old age of 90 and die peacefully in my bed (hopefully!) does not make me any more special than someone my age dying tomorrow - it just means I got lucky and he didn't.
Mecanimus
I meant it more like a joke but I like the idea that since this world apparently has fate, or at least several people believe it has fate, then people who act and dare exert more power on their own destiny. The more a person grab and the more they can grab. It actually makes a lot of sense in a Xianxia setting.
Ringo SK
I'm starting to like Xun Huwen
Ringo SK
At least the Duke showed up in this one. If it ended before that then Jin would be almost hopeless.
David Wei
"Is that so?" Xun Hun says. While he may act like a Hun, I don't think that's his name.
Jae Armstrong
The point about the undead qi is an interesting one I had not considered, but I'm not certain how contaminated Liu Jin has been by that qi. Certainly the framing so far is that he's been able to perfectly avoid it, which is probably why it never occurred to me that that's a factor here. The light in the temple being just some weapon seems less interesting to me so I hope it's not that. Your counterargument to Xun's theory of protagonism is insufficient, unfortunately- mostly because the theory is unfalsifiable (which is why I think it's such a problematic concept to introduce into the story). Liu Jin's success is explained by his skills- but why did he have the opportunities to acquire those skills? And if we find causes for those, what caused those causes? The nature of the argument is that the natural course of coincidence has been reversed engineered to produce this specific outcome. There's no escaping this logic- it's turtles all the way down. (Recall here Wu's argument against Teela's "luck" in Ringworld- that the highly unlikely sequence of events is simply the product of the law of truly large numbers, and that in reality there's no reason to suppose that that improbable history has any predictive power over her future. And then, later, his reluctant admission that you *can* read the events of the book teleologically, that the entire universe has bent itself in half to produce this specific outcome- and that there's no way to prove that isn't the case.) You're also failing to address the fourth and most compelling proof the chapter offers for Xun's theory- the intervention of the Duke. Why did the Duke decide to intervene? Why did he intervene *at this precise moment*? Which is the other problem with the concept. There are answers to all of these questions, but all of them are subordinate to the meta-answer that this is a story and the things that are happening are happening in the way they are happening because it is the most dramatically appropriate. Ultimately the only substantive disproof the story could offer to Xun's argument that "something is going to happen to save you because you're a protagonist" is for nothing to happen and Liu Jin to go splat. Which cannot happen because this *is* and story and Liu Jin *is* its protagonist.
Craig
I don't this his reasoning actually makes sense. His proposal is that some people are the MC and therefore the universe offers them more opportunities. However, some people getting more opportunities could just as easily be explained by opportunities being randomly distributed. Some people will naturally roll high. The MC doesn't get opportunities because he is the MC, he is the MC because he got those opportunities. Xun is essentially the equivalent of a gambler who has high rolled several times in a row and considers himself lucky. However, the reality is that one random event does not effect future random events and his lucky streak will eventually come up short when he bites off more than he can chew. Of course, this is a fantasy novel, so it’s possible that luck is an actual thing in this story.
MasterofNova
The point Xun was making was that a common spirit realm individual would’ve been comatose after dealing with him the first time and wouldn’t have been in the possession of the knowledge needed for him to heal himself. The fact that he was trained the greatest doctor in the world only reinforces Xun’s points about opportunities just finding in the laps of people with more important existences. Each of ur points stems from the knowledge that a veritable nobody gained from a literal fallen god. And then to top it all off he gets saved at the end by a random Renegade cultivator, further proving his point of the importance of Liu Jin. If that’s not proving Xun’s point then idk what could.
burning_the_paper
Patreon ate my comment, but to make it tl;dr - I don't think Liu Jin was being hurt by the light due to his inheritance, but because he had absorbed undead qi to control the monsters. The light only burns the necromancer's minions and Liu Jin. Also, it seems like a somewhat pathetic weapon to fight against an existence like Nine-Headed Snake God. It's more likely that it was a device designed to fight the sects from across the Dead Plains. As for Xun's claims, I theorized in another post that most of what he's saying is warped by his own perceptions and biases. He's so arrogant he believes Liu Jin shouldn't have survived his one blow, and couldn't have healed so quickly, and can't have thrived in the Dead Plains as he did - when we know that all three "proofs" are easily explained by Liu Jin's medical and leadership skills. Also, his claim that he's got plot armor because he's a special snowflake that can fight against someone at a higher level is early invalidated by the existence of Mud, and countless other cultivators that lose to seemingly easy prey - when we know for a fact that a lot of factors go into determining who wins a given battle.
MasterofNova
I don’t think he believes himself to be the mc, he just believes he’s one of the better peeps in the world. I don’t really think saying “chosen few” is accurate since cultivators are always going on about rebelling against Heaven which could actually be a sentient entity in this story. And just from reading the story so far he’s not wrong. Also this is the first time since Xiao Nan that the Mc was given actually useful guidance.
MasterofNova
I would give my entire paycheck to see the next chapter now, that shits insane. Also I feel my theory of the peeps beyond the plains being demons is leaning moreso towards the right direction given the effect the weapon of the temple had on the mc. Also giving hella Wheel of Time vibes with the “I matter more” concept, and was fantastically integrated in story.
burning_the_paper
Did it though? He makes three claims and uses them as proof: 1) Liu Jin survived his blow because of plot armor 2) Liu Jin recovered quickly from crippling injuries because of plot armor 3) Liu Jin thrived in the Dead Plains because of plot armor And here's my counters: 1) He BARELY survived the blow because he absorbed some of the force with his snake constructs, and he would have certainly died if Mud hadn't stood next to him and shielded him from the clash between Xun and the mother of Feng Hao 2) He healed quickly because he's an incredible medical prodigy raised and taught by two of the greatest doctors on the planet 3) He survived the Dead Plains through a combination of knowledge and cooperation - unlike many others he did not lower himself to fight out petty squabble and prioritized survival In light of that, Xun's theory of plot armor really doesn't hold much water.
Mecanimus
I feel like Xun theorized the existence of MC power, and proved it through experimentation. It was elegantly done.
Jae Armstrong
Going to make a guess here that Liu Jin's adverse reaction to the light is a product of conflicting inheritances. Nine-Headed Snake God and/or Divine Storm Dragon on the opposite side of the war to whatever god produced the Eternal Flame? Hopefully Liu Jin's inheritances haven't been damaged by this. I was going to postulate that whatever Lu Mei and company have unearthed here was the missing half of the Eternal Flame, but checking the location of that's apparently with the Imperial Family and not hiding out here in the desert. Unless the Imperials are storing their shit in a wasteland ruin for some reason? I think this concept of diegetic protagonism needs to be approached with care. That's a thought that can grow, tumour-like, to consume any story it's introduced to. Even just in this chapter it's making it difficult to engage with the story *as* a story rather than an act of elaborate narrative wire-pulling.
Guy
I think this chapter demonstrates what makes Xun Huwen so dangerous. It's not that he is an insane bastard that goes around doing whatever he wants. It's that he is incredibly sane person who has a much clearer understanding of how the world works, and he strives to do what he wants within that system. Xun is the only other character so far in the story that reminds us of the old school typical Xanxia protagonist(with Jin's dad being one in his younger days).
burning_the_paper
He basically had three separate lucky breaks in just a few minutes - first he gets healed by the Eternal Flame, then he gets rescued by Guo and finally the Duke intervenes. I wonder how many times you have to almost succeed to finally pierce the metaphysical plot armor.
GregTOF
I think that Xun Huwen and Qing Jin are going to be very good friends or the worst antagonist...
Catherine
Brilliant chapter, thanks! I’m so excited for next weeks 😁
Silverias
I think Huwen is laughing because he realized that Liu Jin's important enough to call Renegades to protect him as a consequence of his existence.
Gamer Doyle
So will the Duke showing up be the Big Damn Hero's moment or something else, can't wait for next week.
almostNEET
Where's the harm in trying?
JoBo12
Xun Huwen is so wrong believing himself to be the MC. Liu Jin's weight is so huge that it forces his opponent to monologue about the cultivation system. xD
burning_the_paper
I think Xun Hunwen has managed to prove his theory, even if the Duke tries to squash him like the cockroach he is, he's likely going to survive - since he's one of the "favored sons of Heaven" (as one shitty transmigrated-into-a-villain stories put it). Just like with Liu Jin, a ridiculous set of circumstances will intervene to let him get away with his life.
burning_the_paper
Very meta concept, kinda reminds of the counterforce from the Nasuverse - an in-universe, canonical explanation why there's always a "hero" around to oppose the "villain" and why humanity hasn't succumbed to all the eldritch horrors inhabiting the Nasuverse Earth. Here we have something similar, only used to explain why there's so many stories of nobodies stumbling their way into a secret technique or a spirit grandpa sealed in a piece of jewellery and why some cultivators seem to keep surviving overwhelming odds. Makes me wonder if there's some sort of intelligence in charge of the processs (ala Nausverse), or if it's some automatic process, and how these "protagonists" get chosen. Now that Xun Hunwen has managed to prove his theory I wonder if there's some way to "weaponize" it.
almostNEET
Oh come on! Duke, can't you slap the shit out of him just once? Even you don't wanna kill him, just give him a little slap to send him to the next country.
JunglyBush
And I thought last week's cliffhanger was cruel. This is so much worse.
