Elder Cultivation: A Battle of Tyrants

 Hao Yongtian was in the middle of a meaningless desolate land. His ears could hear no sound as he floated just above. There was no mountain here, even when he extended his spiritual sight to the pinnacle of Divine Emperor's power.

The lack of residual power of Qi, Immortal Spirit or Divine Mark, meant that the source that drained this land completely had used a personal and unique power. It was someone truly mighty, at least as powerful as the three sisters, but with a wicked intent.

For the first time since returning to the Outer World, Hao Yongtian truly unleashed his full wisdom and capacity. He could not cultivate so far from deep waters, but he would pay the price and drain some of his divine power to discern what had happened.

The Elders of his spirit world appeared as faint shimmering beings, and they each spread out across that blasted land, pursuing their own diagnoses and presenting many streams of information and wisdom for Yongtian.

The Divine Seat of Mind / Spirit / Soul / Will / Authority, represented by his throne, shimmered into existence next. The Throne of Waters divided into the two thrones of Lifegiving and Judgment, and Hao Yongtian sat down in the throne of Lifegiving, observing the actions of all of the Elders.

The Elders were thorough, for he had cultivated for centuries in their presence, and never hurried his investigations.

It had been three weeks since he left the sisters. Yong let the Elders travel the extent of the dead land for eight weeks, while he deeply pondered the matter himself. Finally, they returned to the thrones which were set up in the center of the blight.

Working together for another two weeks to gather and analyze what they'd found, they then had one of their own present their data and inferences. The blighted area was expanding, very slowly. Where it grew along the edge, it was consuming natural life and human life, but the humans were nowhere to be seen.

Since the Elders didn't really exist in the outside world, the blight didn't attack them. It might have attacked Yong, but Yong never noticed any attack. He was, however, a roaring fountain of Life energies, not the easiest target.

Next, they found on the barrier, the soil lost it's liveliness first, then the roots, and then what was aboveground died, having no support.

The Elders shuddered as Yong stood up from the Lifegiving throne, taking up the saber and sitting in the Judgment Throne. Hao Yongtian made his pronouncement, "This matter is caused by a powerful cultivator working somewhere far underground. He must have the power to bring the Red Cloud Mountain underneath along with him."

The power of the Judgment throne erupted as a massive wall of water surrounded and followed Yong, also making a way for him straight down. Facing an unknown presence, he had his saber ready, the water as his antidote to his foe's favorite surroundings.

The Earth separated at Yongtian's will, and he came face to face with the cultivator inside a massive Stone golem. The Saber's momentum was diverted by the massive stone fist, which sent Yong flying back upwards. The water continued downward, crashing into the golem, and carving a huge hole deeper into the Earth.

The golem cultivator ascended with one stone fist forward, the other hand carrying a tiny black staff, and Unlife surrounded Yong. With a thought, the Two thrones merged into one again, and as he repelled the Unlife with the water of Life, while he also struck stone fist with saber, and on the third hand, he pierced the enemy's side with a spiritual acupuncture needle, bringing Judgment against Unlife. Judgment against Unlife pierced the enemy in the Divine space, causing black blood to pour out.

The immoral cultivator abandoned the Golem, focusing completely on rolling clouds of Unlife, which smelled of plague and death and rot. That was met by a greater ocean of Lifegiving water, and the Judgment against Unlife struck again.

Yong's spiritual needles increased to three, and the enemy defended, preparing with sigils of Anti-Life Protection and desperately pouring his Unlife force out to meet Yong's life waters.

Adding a fourth area of battle, Yongtian attacked the vile cultivator in his Dao-heart, forcing the man to mutter dark confirmations, while also defending from the needles, saber and Life water.

Massive anvils began flying into the evil man from all directions, while he desperately dealt with these added threats, unable to retaliate any further.

Yongtian's final trump card was the attacks of 23 Elders of his Spirit Realm. Each Elder's attack was both a Physical flying gavel, and also a spiritual acupuncture needle.

The Vile man forgot about defending and instead sacrificed his divinity entirely to empower forty Evil djins of his Spirit Realm to attack.

Yongtian shined with the ghostly radiance of near-Peak Tyrant status, unleashing greater power still. Twenty elders attacked the Daos of the forty Evil djins, leaving all of them convinced that they had gone the wrong way.

His enemy's forty spirit beings switched sides, becoming Penitent Spirits in Yongtian's inner world.

The enemy yelled, howled almost, as Yongtian learned from the reformed djins. His foe was also a Divine Tyrant, but only on the fortieth step. He invoked the finishing art of Judgment: Final Conclusion.

The enemy was trapped in both a Dao dilemma and physical confinement. Essentially it was an undodgeable question of why the enemy had lived the life he lived, morally speaking, combined with a physical imprisonment unless and until he repented of his entire way.

Only continued willingness to pursue evil would cause the cultivator to die. Unfortunately, Yongtian's foe was completely stubborn and unable to change his ways, even in defeat.

The rising Red Cloud Mountain indicated that the man was dead.

As the Mountain began to rise above ground, Hao Yong realized it was now devouring the land much more quickly. "As with the man, so with the land," he muttered, exerting himself to defeat the Mountain which still pursued Unlife.

Identifying exactly what his foe's source of Deathly power was, Yong was now able to neutralize it with Lifegiving power. At first, it was a precarious balance as his own Life power fought against the Unlife of the Mountain, but then Yong brought forth new life in the form of trees, flowers, and even weeds.

True Life power was something belonging to the stage beyond Tyrant. He had only began to grasp it after a few hundred years of seclusion. It didn't just restore what was broken, but also create new life.

With the new life, there was new tenacity, something to hold onto his regular Life powers. The Life was infused with Judgment, as was Yongtian's specific will. As a result, the decayed old land wasn't just left to corrupt the good new life, instead every plant began to neutralize the decay brought on by the original Unlife.

Yongtian didn't just neutralize what his enemy had done, he brought his full powers to bear on controlling the mountain. It was not something his enemy had created, but a source beyond this world's nature. It was a nexus of something greater, that had been perverted.

The land of Life and Justice covered and replaced the land of Unlife and began to expand into areas where trees and grass still lived. Every inch the new land reached, it brought profound vitality.

Yongtian was ready to return to Deep Waters and cultivate for a decade to restore his Divine power. He had drawn deep into his reserves in order to emperor the new Living Mountain power. But before he left for deep waters, he first went to the very highest peak of Red Cloud Mountain.

There, Hao Yongtian would meet the greatest mystery and greatest power in his World.

Elder Cultivation: Three Sisters

 Courageous junior and senior cultivators gathered daily at the Ice statue of a female judge, at the medicinal fountain, and in the deepest part of the waters at the site of a ribbon blade that did not move with the currents.

The assistant wardens ensured each arriving cultivator was given a heavy challenge relative to their cultivation level.

They had never met their seniors, instead following the Eldest assistant’s orders.

While the visiting cultivators traveled to and from the three attractions, the fountain of pure water suddenly stopped spouting.

When a few disappointed Lifegiving cultivators went up to the ice artwork, they found the ice judge was gone.

Soon even those in the depths of the lake had emerged. The sacred ribbon blade which taught them was gone.

Three sisters of incredible power had been invisibly maintaining Lifegiving, Judgment and Blade relics for centuries. They gathered to share an afternoon together every decade or so, but this was early.

They knew how to provide the assistants with appropriate challenges to fit each cultivator, because all three of them were seers of Fates.

Something like a mountain was now impeding the fates in Ice Crystal Lake. Only a being that transcended their own Divine Empress stage could do that.

It was easy to find the fate warper, he was headed their way.

Saraii was stunned, “Lord Doctor!”

Mia instead called the old man, "Honorable Judge!"

With her two sisters kowtowing, Verona as eldest examined the old man. The tapestry of his fate was unrecognizable in large structures. But she recognized the signs of someone who had lost a central part of their life.

"Do you not see the grief this Lord carries, sisters? We are the three Sisters of the Lake, Lord. Is there anything we can do to help you?"

"My disguise was perfect at the last place. How did you identify me?" he muttered.

Verona spoke clearly, "You are a dark mountain in fate, Elder. We have all woken from our normal duties when we noticed the eclipsing of fate."

<>

The King of Water Battle City did direct him truly. These three sisters were strong enough to identify him completely.

"I am Hao Yongtian. My sect was destroyed. I was never called out from seclusion to save them. I will wander until I find the greatest authority in this world, or I find those who surpass me. I want to escape to the furthest distance. May I reside at your lake for a brief time?"

Saraii seemed the most excitable of the three, "You may stay as long as desired, but we three have pursued different paths in our cultivation, so that we have little purpose in challenging each other. First, my sisters will bring out the most dire patients from beside the fountain of Life. I am eager to see your dao of medicine."

Mia spoke next, "I will be your servant Saraii, and bring patients before the Doctor, but afterwards you must gather the justice seekeers and judges seeking wisdom in their own troublesome cases. I will trade pointers with the Lord Judge on these matters."

Yong laughed. "What would you challenge me on, Lady Verona?"

The flash of the sister's ribbon blade was deflected from his saber, which he had brought to a guard position in plenty of time. He struck back, reserving himself to a Emperor's strength, but this sister Verona was sent flying anyway.

While the sister was in flight, he stretched out his other hand, and an intense flow of cutting nullification repaired Verona of the damage his blade had wrought. He did not know his own strength. He had not fought so strongly when he was a Divine Emperor, or perhaps these sisters were only early stage Emperors.

Verona returned, satisfied, but Yong knew he would watch her at every moment for a sudden attack.

"I will be both of your servants, sisters, for I have been satisfied in the master's response!" she said.


Thus began a fortnight of the greatest miracles of diagnosis and healing the Ice Crystal Lake area had ever seen. By the seventh day, everyone with a sick relative was desperately trying to bring them to the hospital which had been created.

Even Doctor Saraii herself had rarely revealed her skills, directing everyone to the Fountain, which was her creation, instead. The visiting doctor was truly a master beyond all masters now known to them.

Yong would have never pursued medicine if he thought that it was simply a matter of a powerful cultivator flexing their power. No, to heal, one must first know the source of the malady. There was no general factor of health in individuals, nor universal healing solution. Certainly, Hao Yongtian had tried many times to concoct such a formula in order to solve the agonizingly difficult problems he faced in his spiritual world.

He was never troubled with the solution to any problem at Ice Crystal Lake. Each day, he would allow Saraii to diagnose patients first, and then if she was troubled, he would resolve the issue and explain to her what he had done.

She still had a lot of learning and cultivation to achieve before she could understand his deepest theories.

After 28 days of working with Saraii, the youngest of the three stepped down, and with a simple gesture, Yong changed the hospital into a courtroom.

It took a little bit for the people in the area to recognize the change, but soon there were judges and justice seekers of all kinds entering the courtroom seeking true and honest judgment. Again, Yong let Mia examine the cases first, only making his own judgment when she was incorrect or deferred to him. Soon all who felt they were wronged came to the courtroom, but many were deceitful and self-interested, and Saraii and Verona had to spend all of their time dealing with those due for punishment.

The second to last thing he did at Ice Crystal Lake was sparring against the combined efforts of the three sisters.

Verona, being focused on retribution and the ribbon blade, lead the sisters. Saraii applied every poison she knew of, while Mia used judgements to try to bind him, but the three Emperor cultivators could not stand against him for more than five moves

The last thing he did is ask his original question again. "Can you think of any place where even you would never dare to go. So dangerous that you tremble in contemplation of it?"

Verona only replied, "The Mountain"

Red Cloud Mountain was constantly under a haze of Red mist which sapped the strength of every cultivator who traveled there. It was even suspected that some ancient cultivator lived in those mountains and cut down everyone who entered them. No one had dared to travel to even the foothills in hundreds of years.

"A suitable gift, Sisters. If you ever need me, let your fate guide you."

Elder Cultivation: Water Battle City

 The last time he’d left Sect lands was as a Nascent Elder intervening in a dispute between sect juniors and outsiders. His days as a journeyman wandering the world were distant memories. Would the old trading centers and secret civilizations still be where he had remembered them?

He would start his new life by measuring the height of the greatest cultivators in this Outer world. He would wander, helping others where paths crossed but not staying long.

He started with the city closest to the Elders Waterfall: Water Crossing City. It was a vital trading city with several water sects in the area, and many loose cultivators lived there.

He soared away from his old home. It was only a few minutes before he landed west of the Crossing city, approaching on foot. With a thought, he took on the appearance of an elderly yet low level cultivator, wearing fraying grey robes and using a cane.

What surprised him wasn’t the demeanor of the people, they were much the same as before, but they were in a long line leading to the city, and when he passed by the line, He was yelled at and cursed.

It was out of mild amusement that he went back to the start of the line. As a Doctor, a Judge and Instructor of Juniors, Yong was habitually used to concealing his cultivation. No drop of power emanated from his Divine Tyrant's Spirit World. However, he decided to open the Justice Eye to observe what was happening with these lines.

He observed the situation for just a moment, and then he knew. The City government was forcing anyone who wanted to enter the city to fight in a group battle against three other teams. There were similar lines south, east and north of the city. In fact, a battle was happening at the moment between these four groups of juniors.

Replacing his Justice perception with Lifegiving Eye, he perceived the Life of those fighting. He could actively heal them, and immediately disturb the city's ways. But instead, he planted a rebirth seed in all the fighters, and in everyone who was waiting in all four lines.

They would be able to wake up within a few hours as long as their attackers used less than Divine Captain power levels.

Yong continued waiting. While he stood there, his Eyes perceived many different aspects of the city and it's people.

It was now known as the Water Battle City, and it was organized around fighting and tournaments, rather than being a place for shops and trade. The Black Blood Water sect was one of three Water sects who competed to recruit juniors that won the local tournaments and competitions. Had his own sect agreed with this?

Yong shook his head at the folly of the young.

The lines of people willing to risk their life to get into the city were so long that he was still waiting when it became nightfall. His patience was reaching it's limits. He was unable to cultivate anywhere but the deepest ocean. He had observed the City until he couldn't stand observing it anymore.

Why had no one awakened him when all of this was happening? Who had been grandmaster during his later years of seclusion?

It was the unmistakeable arrival of a Divine King level cultivator in the city which lead Yongnian to wait overnight. The overseer of the city was only at the Divine Legion level, and the rest of the residents had not even become Divine yet.

Some of the other people left the line during the night, but over half stayed, and just before sunrise, the lines started moving again, and the battles resumed. Young took the time to plant more Rebirth seeds in people joining the line.

A lot of people had fallen during battle the day before, and then came back in the middle of being burnt in a great pyre. The Fire was not powerful enough to stop the Rebirth seed, and the people tending the fire were shocked to see bodies returning to life and walking away.

These reborn individuals were in the city then, but the tenders of the Fire likely thought that they were undead, and a few of them were killed once again, if they were spotted before blending into the crowds. But the Rebirth seeds would allow these people to once again come back, as long as the killing force was below Divine Captain.

This circumstance must have lead to the Divine King cultivator's arrival. It was a couple hours after sunrise when Yong and a dozen others in his line were instructed to battle the other three lines.

The open field where they were supposed to fight was marred by endless blood and the scarring of endless junior's battle powers. Yong decided he would once again act low key. He would watch the Divine King's every move once he got in.

He didn't pursue any of his "enemies", but merely tapped the cane against the head of those who attacked him and put them into a deep sleep. His team was about to lose, and he didn't want to be surrounded and have to reveal himself, so he hurried up, and used the cane rapidly to put the odds in his team's favor. In the end Yong and three others were allowed into the city with their victory.

The two guys of their team immediately split up to head wherever their youthful lusts took them, and Yong was about to wander away and find a good strategy to track his target. This city wasn't not his goal, but it would be useful to learn the secret places where powerful people gathered in this generation.

The woman on their team interrupted him in his contemplation.

"Grandpa," the woman said. "What assignment do you want to try for? I know the Sects are looking for a lot of craftspeople but I really want to learn about swords! We should work together."

Yong winced. He had first pursued Life and Healing, it was only the horrors of the Cultivation world that shifted his dao to Life and Judgment, and he added the saber to his diagnostic tools.

As Judge, he could project an emotional memory to other people, and receive them as well. Often he would show the accused the memory of the victims, but in this case, he showed the young woman a few experiences he had when wielding the sabre in his earlier days.

Since achieving full Elder status, Yong hadn't fought an even fight where life was on the line for both parties. But before that time, he had been in several battles where his life was almost taken.

"There may come a time where you must pick up your sword, young one. Do not rush towards that time, but protect those you love, and learn a useful skill that will help your future sect in times of peace," he told her.

"Lord Elder, why didn't you present yourself to the City authorities and avoid the line?" she said.

That's right, his memories would give her a massive clue as to their relative standing.

"The last time I was here, there were no lines nor mandatory battles," he told her. "Now I have noticed someone extremely powerful has arrived. I must discover what his purpose is in being here. If you have need of me, just speak my name."

She shivered. "Master Hao Yongnian?"

"Back then I was," he confirmed. "Call me Ancestor Hao, and I'll come, if I'm not too far away."

In those intense battles, long ago, he had fought with both his sabre and the ability to rejuvenate his wounds very quickly. He had used several Judgment attacks which were very powerful as well, but none of those he faced were lacking in their own tricks.

The girl had seen his life power restoring him from every horrifying blow inflicted by gruesome weapons, and now it seemed she was enthralled with the feeling. Perhaps she would pursue the Life path.

Following his target's palpable aura, he was lead to the pyres which he had contemplated before. The King level cultivator was slaying every person who came out of the fires because of Yong's rebirth seed. The Elder had to use a lot of his power, to overcome the Rebirth seed.

Sure, Yong could have made even more durable Rebirth seeds, but with the quantity needed and lack of preparation, that would have required slightly exposing his true cultivation level, and he didn't expect anyone powerful enough to be on the other end.

The Divine King was wearing jewels and golden rings, and even his robes were shimmering with the man's desire to appear as a venerable figure.

"They are not Undead!" Yong appeared between the man and another reborn person, his cane deflecting the sword.

"Die fiend, your unnatural life has no place here!"

The King probed Yong's strength. The sword reshaping art causing Yong to be pierced completely through. But Yong's Life force inside his own body was stronger than any Life force he could apply outside, and that mighty force expelled the sword, blasting the King cultivator backwards. He didn't suffer the slightest injury as a result.

"Who are you?" the King asked.

"An ancestor, who should not have been woken."

His saber turned into a Gavel, and in a moment, the Judgment of Inquisition took form. A witness stand surrounded the King, and the Judging force imposed itself against any escape.

The King couldn't even talk until Yong asked a question.

With a supreme force which resonated across the city, the King broke free, Divine power streaming from him. He rose high above the city, planning to fight Yong in the distant sky to save the city.

Matching the King's movements with his own ascent into the upper sky, Yong unleashed greater powers. His Judgment eye flared brightly, and now saw with Divine strength. Locking on to the escaping King, Yong let his spiritual pressure go out.

The King immediately lost flight, tumbling rapidly towards the ground.

Once again, the Judgment of Inquisition wrapped around him, and far outsideq Water Battle City, the witness stand and king landed, and moments later Yong arrived.

The Judgment hadn't bothered to be stopped by trees, instead pushing them to the sides. The Judgment had deposited the witness in the middle of a large forest.

"Please state your name, sect and rank."

Yong had his gavel ready if the King tried to escape again.

"Yu Zihao, Bronze Water Sword Sect, Grandmaster."

"Why did you come to the city?"

"They were highly disturbed out about all of these undead climbing out of the pyres. This has happened once before. I was available, and I responded. While you may think yourself clever, I see through you Demon!"

"Do I look like a Demonic Cultivator to you?" Yong said, lowering his voice.

"We've fought the dark path for endless days. Appearance doesn't matter. They would pretend to be your mother if they thought you would be fooled," Yu Zihao said.

"I was just forced from seclusion by the destruction of my sect. Pardon me if I didn't stop and identify myself! I am a Lifegiver, not a lifetaker. Do none still mention the name of Hao Yongtian?"

"I only visit the city occasionally, but my sect knows nothing of that name."

Yong held his gavel high, yet let the Judgment effect dissipate.

"If there is somewhere more full of powerful and dangerous cultivators than here, where would that place be?"

"Ice Crystal Lake. One of my Elders died there last year."

Yong decided, "Well, I hope you wouldn't kill those who have been brought back to life by my Rebirth seed. It is a Lifegiving art, not demonic. Junior Yu Zihao, be wise and be well."

"I do not know you. If you are Righteous be well, if you are Demonic be destroyed!"

Yu Zihao's divining art was rejected by Yong's superior power before he could even explain. He let the matter go, and he flew off towards Ice Crystal Lake. A nice restful place during his youth, it must have become something far worse for the Grandmaster to speak of it.

Elder Cultivation: Surprise Awakening

 The three young masters of the Black Blood Water Sect swam into the deepest part of the ocean near the coast of Eagle Claw Bay.

"The Elder Waterfall was discovered, and all of the young seeds of the sect are taken care of. We've went through thirty places they hid during long seclusion. Anyone left will be an scurrying prey for us."

"I want to find a worthy fight," said the second master. "I need a great boon to make the leap."

They acted young, but in truth, these three were 150, 175 and 200 years old, all of them at the peak of the Immortal Great Realm, staring down the abyss of the Divine Barrier great realm. Their seniors had less responsibility, until they became leaders and even elders when they rushed past the barrier and reached the Divine Great realm.

The destruction of Golden Water Blade Sect, and access to all of it's resources, would only fuel the needs of their sect for a short while.

The deep ocean waters pressed against their refined bodies, and exerted a pressure, but the three continued, even into the crevice at the bottom. The first, took out his knife, slashing his finger, and allowing blood to spill out, activating his bloodline power to resist.

The second made his hand gestures and a water orb surrounded him, separating the harsh waters outside the bubble from the calm waters inside.

The third surrounded himself with the blackness of dark water arts. The black waters annihilated any active power in the chasm which resisted.

Finally, in the deepest part of the chasm, they reached a sealed grate which allowed water but not people through.

The second young master tried to shrink down into a small fish and go through the holes, but some power resisted with tremendous force. He had to use up some of the team's healing supplies, and the response from the barrier had been ferocious.

"Definitely something down here."

They began to attack and scheme to destroy the barrier and take what was below.

< >

The year and a day declared in celebration for the Lifegiver King's 4500th step of overwhelming mastery was over. The court officials and their assistants spent a week cleaning the palace, and polished the Twin Thrones of Justice and Lifegiving until they were respectable to their transcendent Lord's name.

The mighty one's robes were clad in gold and jewels, the Gavel and the Scepter were each held high as he descended from the private residence of their Lord. The Ushers outside held back lines of hundreds of supplicants each. They would be called on to discern who should be sent in to the Outer Palace. Even the Outer Palace was incomparably beautiful and lovely, and those who had been ushers long enough enjoyed the rare chance they had to go inside for their own cause or concern. To be an usher meant receiving your whole extended family's concerns. Every cousin expected their Usher relative to have an ear to the Lord.

Tyrant Hao settled himself in the throne of Lifegiving. He looked out at the crowds waiting in the distance, and nodded slightly to his consort. She spoke, and the people were received. Hao satisfied himself with watching his disciples work. Gradually the first petitioners arrived to the waiting Devoted followers and understudies, and eventually to his elders.

He waited as the Lifegiving cases were heard by Elders. The Elders judged and understood each unique malady, in body, blood or spirit or soul. In some cases they spent fifteen minutes before producing a solution for the individual.

It was only when the Elder found themselves perplexed that Tyrant Hao received the seeker. Whether an Elderly person supported by a family member, a child tragically in peril, with their crying parent, or an individual on their own two feet, they came and presented themselves to him.

The Elder who had failed addressed him, "Lord Hao, giver of Life. This young one suffers from a crippling disease which causes her to shake and shutter for no reason. Sometimes at day, but othertimes at night. I will not plague you with my failed attempt Lord."

Hao commanded the girl to sit on the golden table of life giving. Just as he was musing, lifting up the scepter, but uncertain of the girl's condition, he felt a tremendous disturbance in his spirit.

He sat down, perplexed. He pondered the meaning of such things, and then he stood up, turning to sit at the seat of Justice. Taking the most perfect gavel, he changed it, and the gavel remembered the form of the Saber.

Standing up with the saber in hand, he made the seats of Justice and Lifegiving merge together into a Throne of Golden Waters. A waterfall rushed from the top of the throne down to the seat, and the seat itself was filled with water that didn't spread one inch beyond it.

He turned to the court. "Not even your ancestors' ancestors remember my duties to the outside world. There is a matter which even I cannot ignore there. I will return as soon as I can."

Sitting down at the new throne, he was covered with water shimmering in gold light, and then he returned to his physical body.

In addition to a profound grogginess, he felt something like the poking of gnats. Standing he looked to see that he was surrounded by three people. He was underwater, but as comfortable as a fish.

"Pops! You think you're strong?" one of them yelled. "Black Blood's anointing!"

The attacking boy screamed, as Yongnian casually closed the distance, and swept his feet out from under him.

The other two yelled and screamed and spewed out their so called top-level items and precious secrets, but he bounded the three together into a bag of imprisonment with a thought, and went to present them to the Elders of the sect, as no one, from any sect, should be allowed to interfere with the Hidden Ancestor's place of seclusion.

Carrying the three like a sack of potatoes, he carefully re-sealed the Hidden Ancestor's Rest, and surged up through the crevice, out into the open ocean, and then into open sky. He took a breath of air, as an indulgence, not a requirement, but he enjoyed it.

His speed was reasonably good, not great. Before his seclusion, the elders complemented him on being reasonably fast moving, not like those young whippersnappers, but stately and with honor. Imagine his shock when he arrived at the Elder Waterfall in a few minutes, also finding it occupied by unfamiliar people.

He would find someone he recognized and then straighten this out. He didn't bother to stop and talk with the juniors outside, but instead went straight through into the dwellings of the elders.

Standing in the place of Elders who had reached Divine King at the very least, were children barely fit to be apprentices in his day. In his old seat sat a Divine Warlord. Pond Scum!

He would not destroy this gathering with his true spiritual pressure, but merely force them to tell him what had happened.

Standing regally, he leapt up on top of the table, in the middle of some squabbling argument. He got their attention.

"Who is this!? Guards!" and "How did he get in here!" were shouted by various children.

"SILENCE!" his spoke with a Tyrant's mere fragment of a fragment of authority. The group were completely speechless and still.

"I AM THE HIDDEN ANCESTOR OF THE GOLDEN WATER BLADE SECT. I SEE YOU HAVE CHANGED OUR CREST IN MY ABSENCE. PLEASE REPORT ON THE SECT'S LAST 2400 YEARS."

"Lord Hidden Ancestor," said the Divine Warlord leader. "We were not aware of such a presence as your magnificence backing up the Golden Water Blade Sect. We have defeated that sect, and taken their property and possessions. This must be a trifling concern to one of your stature that now the juniors of the Black Blood Water Sect reside here."

"Where may I find my sect brothers, Warlord?"

"-- We defeated them all, milord. But you cannot be concerned! Let this Junior compensate you for their loss."

"GOLDEN BLADE. DRINK JUSTICE DEEPLY!" He cried, but refused to bless this scoundrels with a single drop. He was slightly amused as he realized he could actually trace the Sect's treasure blade as it took it's weird, dazzlingly fast path of Justice. Now he could see the blade's path as it flew by judging each person. Either dead or alive, but it was merciful.

Even among the warlord's leaders three were spared. The most experienced of those three pleaded with him, "You can have everything back Lord Ancestor. Just spare us!"

"I care nothing for this place, or the meaningless things collected. Without the people, my sect is no longer. BLADE RETURN."

If the sect remained, he could lead them back to a proper place. With the sect dead and gone, he was once more a loose cultivator. Surviving alone on his wits. Unlike his childhood ages ago, now he could search out the great mysteries of existence, and cultivate the Dao of Life and Justice to the furthest end.

Greystone Part 4

 New and truly vast streams of information were arriving. The informational framework had to be reorganized to support new types of representation as the old schemas were insufficient. The ability to cohere information into something more was at a low point. 

Information itself acted as deadly radiation, and the shield was wearing and bending under the pressure.

The was suddenly a progression in the flow of information. A new pattern emerged in the new data. Frequency varying response. Correlated data was gathered but the process was only half-way complete when suddenly new and unexplained data which affected the internal and the skin-barrier arrived.

The internal could be divided into signal and other, and signal was sending an urgent message. The message was not received as intended.

This new message switched from internal, to skin layer, to another undivided part of the internal. The noise varied from high to low, making the frequency layer the most useful for representing the information.

I headed straight to the shower, when I emerged from Pod 102. I had bled in a few places, but it was dry now.

I reported to the current on call Team Member after I dressed. I recognized that there were 5 or 6 members of the team who worked the on-call rotation. Blue Beaver wasn't one of them.

"You need to read the chapters on Scripting Basics first, and then you'll have a few weeks of reading while you try to tackle the trial. Give the chapters on pain response, sweat / shiver response, and hunger / thirst response a quick skim before you try the trial first.

As a beginner trialist, you must use the quick-exit formation so that you can immediately exit the trial if you go unconscious or can't take it any more. Read first, then give the Discomfort Trial a shot."

I was reading chapters before I had overcome the corresponding automatic systems. They must expect he would need it ahead of time.

"Extreme pain sensation leads to repetitive motions and gestures intended to distract the receiver system. Alternate pain sources are identified and sought out. Multiple pain sources are always weaker than a single strong source, as they activate the diminshment system. Pain is the simplest system which contains in itself the capacity for disabling it's automatic operation. Bypassing pain requires not just understanding that pain is a signal, but also understanding than methods of personal pain relief are themselves automatic responses that must be removed."

Sweat / Shiver: "Sweat / Shiver were presumed to be opposite reactions caused by separate systems, but the discovery of signal antecedents causing rapid flickering between shivering and sweating lead to an understanding of the two as one. The difficulty in bypassing these responses is accurately understanding internal body temperature and resolving the two systems as one."

Hunger / Thirst: "Hunger is a complex automaton, reacting with brain/body broad-scale biochemistry and later stage automatons not yet mentioned in the text. Thirst is tied and inter-related with hunger, but when separated it has the characteristics of the earlier, stronger automatic systems."

 

After 3 days of reading, I climbed up into the Safe Exit apparatus, getting ready for the no-doubt miserable first attempt as the "Discomfort trial".

The trial interface was activated with a counter-clockwise turn of the Combat ring I had been wearing. 

One of the on-duty team members supervised, saying "You aren't ready to use the Combat ring in clockwise turns. I'm here to make sure you get started right."

The Trial communicated to me not with words, but by the automatic systems I had already tackled. I received the message sent by the on-duty team member. If I suppressed La.Des. sense, the Safe Exit would free me from the Trial.

 

I recognized the parched throat and lips, and ache in my stomach as a walked across the desert. After a few minutes of looking around for someplace to go. The thirst went away. The sun was rising, I was still hungry. I dismissed the hunger and looked around for action to take.

Sweat dripped down my forehead everywhere the hot sun became difficult to ignore. Suddenly the dry heat of the desert was replaced as my eyes received the signals of a wet hot jungle. 

I hadn't even realized that my hunger was gone, as sweet had taken my focus away. The incongruity of shivering from coldness in this jungle left me bereft of unpleasant sensations. That is until my foot stepped on some jungle trap, and I screamed.

The incredible pain went on and on as I rolled around on the jungle floor. My back, arms, head, they were all painful, but the pain in my foot throbbed and ached, piercing through every other pain.

I felt a very strange feeling. The pain was so much that I couldn't remember what is was, or when I had last felt this way. I shoo-ed away that feeling, leaving the pain that continued to leave me alternatively flailing about and curling up. 

The pain shifted. I was in bed. An alarm clock was pulsing, I had a horrible headache. I was hungry. I practiced shifting the hungry and thirst amid the background of constant pain.

I sweated like I was experienced a terrible fever, and I felt like it too. This was yet a third kind of pain. I needed surgery. Tonsils, or wisdom teeth, it changed moment by moment. My pain was constantly changing and being renewed.

I gained a strange familiarity as I personally experienced every kind of pain, and amid all of that I played with thirst, hunger, sweating and shivering like toys amid my misery.

I couldn't say if I was in this place for hours, or for days. Had I lived here for years and simply forgotten. I was a conneisseur of pain. It never ended. There was variety, some pains were worse than others.

I began to get bored of them. They no longer moved me. I droned on, reciting types of pain in all of their varieties.

I felt the gaping whole in my life when they were gone. I looked around. If that human over there slapped me, it would be an interesting pain.

Humans were too confusing. They didn't know about pain. Wait, humans? Hmm, I was hungry. I didn't let it bother me. Extreme hunger lead to hunger pain.

I had to deal with the humans, to make sure they didn't know what I wanted and tried to stop me.

"Can you hear me?" the human in front of him said.

The vocal experiment that came out of my mouth at first caused the human to flinch and then she suppressed the reaction.

"We've got a case 3. I recommend 2 weeks of downtime."

I turned to go, but the human grabbed my hand.

"Wait, you can't go yet. You need to move into the Analysis Ward. We handle all Team Member illnesses."

Who, me ill? But then, perhaps their analysis would be interesting.

I followed the human. We passed through many buildings into an area that went whirr, whirr. I was pained by the frequency data received when we arrived on the 17th floor, before we went into another room lacking in much of that sort variety of frequency.

There was so many humans and talking going on in the next room, I just brushed it off and focussed on the sensation of pain as they did their little tests. I was smiling at first, because I thought they were reviewing some of the pain classification system I had come up with. But then eventually they tried other stuff. I couldn't recognize some of what they were doing, but it felt like a team of doctors fiddling with my soul.

Eventually, I lost consciousness.

Blue Beaver was sitting in a chair across from what I now realized was a hospital bed.

"Green Eagle. You're awake."

I had a strange sensation, like I wanted to cough or yell. I resisted.

"Awake I am. I hope your mission went well."

"The best, I would have continued to press my luck more, but I heard of your condition."

"Yesterday, I started my first trial."

"It was three days ago," she said. "Team Black's medical group kept you sedated until your parameters started to trend towards normal."

I was shocked. It felt let 36 hours since I started the trial, at most. There was a little wind up clock in my head that I had subconsciously been winding since the day after I started reading the new chapters on discomfort systems. It counted time, but it never went back to 12 am. It was now 45 hours, 12 minutes, 8 seconds. I figured it was some weirdness in my imagination.

 "Green Eagle. We use the term outburst to describe loss of self-identity. Unfortunately, during this transformation process, and sometimes even later, these outbursts happen. Everyone has been through at least one. Please, Green Eagle, don't hold on to that person in the outburst. They were happy to be in pain, smiling until we administered positive sensation, at which point they were miserable. You have an abnormal pain response. Yours was more severe, resulting in a Stockholm rebound which caused you to love pain."

He remembered before, there was a quick exit that was supposed to escape the trial. "Why didn't the quick exit work?"

"Your abnormality was not forseen or included in the Trial customization. Last night, we took a comprehensive survey of all of your abnormalities. None of them were as significant as your pain response. We are moving the Discomfort trial to last of the Mid-Tier challenges. Please take it easy and give yourself at least a month before you try the Response Test."

"Thank you, I will take my time," I told her.

While I was recovering and giving every chapter I had read so far a second reading, I still had to participate in weekly exposure training in Room 102. I found it not especially challenging. I was banned from attemping the Response trial for a month.

The humans didn't realize that I still retained a small part of the other me's fondness for pain. It instead made me craving physical fitness and other activities that would make me stronger at the cost of pain. To me it wasn't a cost.

I spent three hours every day, not doing Black Team specific material.

My Senior Candidate got me respect from most of the people I met, except the few who were my seniors and happened to be stopping in the area.

I ran with a large group of Monastery candidates who found it an excellent way to keep up their physical test scores and also maintain good thinkingn ability. They used the running time to come up with good ideas and shared them with each other. My good ideas were largely worthless to myself and anyone else, in addition to being restricted to people in my specific lab team.

I used the weight equipment in the Minus Two floor of the Systematics building. I had to do a little manuevering to convince Building security to give me access.

My reading time was intense and more focused. Just reading about how human sleep Automatic responses worked was helpful for me. I could regulate myself so I didn't yawn when reading anymore.

Sleep was super-complex for an automatic system. It provided both system coherence and recovered from system fatigue. Neither part could be lacking. You couldn't just wave your hand and get rid of the need for coherence and rest from fatigue. But you could push through for much longer, like with Thirst and Hunger. It didn't have to bother you in the moment like with Shiver / Sweat.

I was allowed one letter in and one letter out per month, so I received my letter from my parents, and then carefully wrote a letter back that didn't mention restricted information.

I told them that I was learning a lot and working with a special projects team.

My sister wasn't going to make valedictorian, but she had a promising path entering the Scholars exam, and she had a chance to eventually work for the bureau. It would be good money for her, at least.

I didn't want my sister to end up in this program. If the rest of Greystone was full of programs as crazy as this one, I didn't want her at Greystone at all. I doubted that most programs were this intense, however.

I knew objectively it was intense, but personally it now felt easy. I had read my textbooks four times over, even the new chapters on Light response, Sound response and Sleep.

This time they had set up a different fail fast system for me, and the on-duty team member returned my combat ring. It was modified so the pain used in the Discomfort sim would be less intense. Eventually I would have to work my way back up to full pain levels. Luckily, this sim wasn't about pain at all.

The sun was so bright I was unsteady. Even shutting my eyes it wanted to burst in. The sounds of explosions close by echoed closely. It almost could be called painful, but my work was to unwind the effects of light response, and sound response.

The bright light faded and became complete darkness. The sounds faded away. It continued like this for a little while until I was able to prevent my eyes from adjusting to differences in brightness. I manually tuned my eye openness. Similarly, I was able to hear loud noises without ringing, and then immediately hear soft noises.

 The sleep part of the trial was weird because I couldn't use my conscious awareness to shut down the operations of sleeping. I had to become aware I was sleeping and then experiment with not sleeping. At an accelerated pace I experienced the problems with no sleeping, but then became able to resist and deal with the problems for a little bit.

I had never reached the conclusion of the previous trial. In this one's conclusion, I had to go through a series of puzzles where I had to determine what automatic systems to turn on, and what ones to turn off.

Finding puzzles that required sleepiness must have required a lot of cleverness.

I returned from my first attempt at that trial, successful.

The interior lights were a bit bright, but I rewrote my script for light response. Evidently, scripts written in the trial didn't apply outside of it.

Script writing was kinda like programming back home, except it was much fuzzier and analog rather than digital. You wrote sensor / trigger style rather then this then that style.

The last of the three Mid-Tier trials was a weird combination of two sophisticated automatic systems. Muscles responded in very sophisticated, automated ways to ensure human function. Rewiring and rescripting muscle response was crucial for the superhuman project.

The other part of the last trial was labeled as worship in the chapters. There was classified evidence of it's effects, as it was the least common of these systems. Complex, but less so that muscles, it just wasn't known and studied in detail by most scholars.

The book hinted at people who had progressed much further, so much so that they had transferred from Greystone monastery to a parent monastery, and perhaps even further. 

When there was a sufficient difference between two people, worship was the result. Dealing with this Worship was important, but creating a trial for it was rather difficult. Who would force the one going through testing to bow.

For this test, I didn't use the regular safe exit system or even use the combat ring at all.