A dissonance had plagued me throughout my life. There had been something missing in my interactions and memories. A strange wrongness that had permeated me through every waking moment. My path had been incomplete, fractured.
Memories flashed through my mind, a joint fractured mess being stitched together. Anger, frustration, fear, hate, love, passion. I watched my life flash in front of my eyes, memories being tied together into a singular whole.
They were broken. Two sights, two eyes. Two people. Split between two minds that existed in one body. But not anymore. Now I was complete in a way that I failed to describe. I had been suffocating my entire life, crushed under the tangle of my own soul. And finally, I was allowed to breathe for the first time in decades.
Chi flowed from the world around me. It flowed into the little tree within my dantian, sucked into a blinding tree, as little leaves sprouted. They lit up with a green shimmer, energy distilled to its purest form. Two rings of Chi floated around the tree. One was solid.
Words of gold were marked upon it, shining brightly. The First Law: Duality of Chi.
I had solidified the first step in my path.
I opened my eyes, and took a deep breath in. Everything felt different. I was brimming with more energy than I had ever felt within myself. Each smell was distinct, each color more vivid. All my sensations felt enhanced, as unrestrained energy seeped through my body. Yet the whispers of neither Qi nor Gu reached upon my ears as they did on previous breakthroughs.
“Chii! Complete!” Twilight chimed, jumped atop my head. I smiled, grabbing my little vampire girl, and carefully putting her on my shoulder.
“The cycle mends itself. The first step has been taken,” Ki said, stepping closer. The Kirin’s antlers lit up with a green glow, basking upon my skin.
“How do you feel, child?”
I looked down upon my hands, clenching them, as if I had just gained them anew. “Ashamed to have treated you without due respect,” I said, bringing my hands together as I bowed respectfully. “And better than I’ve ever felt,” I raised my head, grinning.
“That is to be expected, child. You had been living with a soul fractured in two. Your self was fractured upon itself, and tangled into a knot. But your suffering has not been without reward. The Chi flows through you, more pure than it would’ve been had you not gone through life in two halves.”
I nodded at Ki’s words. My dantian now housed a singular core, larger than I could’ve fathomed. I called upon the Chi lightning, a flame upon my fingertips. The flames burned bright gold, surging and flickering.
With a silent tug of my will, the flame expanded, a floating ball of fire over my hand. I grabbed half the flame with my other hand and let the chi split. Qi formed on my right arm, and Gu upon my left. The flames shifted, one turning red, the other a violet-black.
My heart began to thunder Yet, this was far from the extent of my newfound abilities. I had used a drop, a mere single drop from the vast lake that stirred in my soul.
“You will have time to learn about your Path child. But for now, we have tasks to finish,” Ki said. Hooves clicked, as the Kirin stepped into the air. I followed behind, heading towards the giant tree ahead of me.
“Press your hand against the tree. You will know what you need to do.”
Taking an uncertain glance towards the flying Kirin, I stepped ahead. Chi pulsed between my feet, as each step covered large spans of distances. An evolution of my Wind step that manifested on its own.
The tree slowly rose in front of me. Its stump was vast, and all expansive. Even when broken, the tree was larger than any structure I had ever seen, in either this world or the previous one.
Stepped closer, I marveled at the energy flowing through the tree. Pure Chi coursed within the bark, moving through little streams that were rising up above. It was alive, even in this broken and hollow state.
Gently, I pressed my palm against its bark. Essence permeated my body, entering through my body. The essence flowed into the sapling within my core, nourishing it. A vision rose in front of my eyes, of my little sapling, growing, slowly but surely, into the gigantic tree that was in front of me.
Somewhere, deep in my soul. I could understand. This too was a cycle.
The tree would die, the cycle would break, before a new one would arise from its dead branches. A new order, shaped by the people of a new era.
My senses mingled with the tree, and for a moment, my spirit drifted, as the world around me came into view.
The sun and the moon went around in an eternal cycle, as I watched decades fly past in a moment. My roots were spread throughout the continent, my branches extending into the sky, and touching upon the realm of spirits. Life began from my branches, and Death ended within my roots. All life, and all dead, they joined within my cycle.
But all cycles must come to an end. And so the tree fell, dying, withering, as its era came upon an end. The world splintered. Life and death, now separate.
Immortals rose, a defiance of the order. Death was cut off from its rightful place, so now it festered. Preying upon the weak. Qi and Gu were thus formed.
Where life exists without death, and death without life. And so, rose a new empire. An empire of immortals. And of the immortal heavens. A defiance of the cycle of nature, and the corruption of life.
I watched in silence, as my branches continued to wither, and my roots began to die. In silence, I waited. For a new seed to arrive.
A snap pushed me out. I opened my eyes, breathing heavily, as my spirit parted from the tree. Sweat dripped from my forehead, and my body shivered as if I had run a marathon.
A brief image remained in my mind even upon the separation. Upon my death, the tree within my soul would blossom. Marking the end of an era, and the rise of another.
“Now you see, my child. The tree, it is our husk. We remain as its spirit, tied to an old era that had ended. Awaiting a new one to arise.”
My lips parted briefly, as I breathed out. Something remained stuck in my throat. I gulped.
“Why me?” I asked.
“We do not know. Fate. Or perhaps a simple chance. But it is only you, who heard our voice. It is only you who saw the divide within the cycle, and accepted both halves within your soul. Perhaps the split of your soul too, was preordained. Meant to form two cycles, that could them recombine. To form what you are today,” Ki said, stepping down from the sky. Her golden emerald eyes glimmered as they met mine.
I felt my lips tremble. “How are you so calm? This… if I do this, then you will die.”
The Kirin met my eyes in silence, before it let out of a snort. “We do not fear death. And neither will we be gone completely. We will merely change form, be reborn anew in the plant you house within your soul. And within her,” the Kirin said, glancing down towards Twilight.
“Chii?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion.
“Twilight?” I asked, surprised.
“You have much to learn, Lu Jie. She is the most suitable spirit to harbor us. She hears the whisper of the living, and of the dead. She exists upon the line of union, the twilight of this world of divide. And she carries the essence of your soul. Our blessing will suit her best.”
I glanced down at the little plant girl on my shoulder, before looking back up towards Ki. The Kirin’s eyes reflected my face.
I watched a golden circle spinning inside my pupil, a second silver one right outside it.
“Your path will guide this world forward Lu Jie. Or you will fail, and we will wait once more. For another seed to arrive. We do not know.”
“Totally not a lot of pressure for a random 20 year old guy,” I smiled.
Ki returned a sensation of amusement as well. “We trust you, child. Your path is fascinating. And haven’t you been stifled enough? Now is a new beginning, for both you and this world. Walk your path in freedom, and bring this world to a height it has never seen before. For you walk the path of knowledge, and of learning.”
The rings within my soul stirred at the Kirin’s words.
“Now go. Think not of this as the end, but the beginning. We will watch over you, from within your soul. And we will await the day, for our rebirth in a new era of knowledge and understanding.” The Kirin nudged me ahead, as I stumbled towards the tree.
Taking a breath, I pressed my palm against the tree once more.
A vast cycle spread out to my senses once more. It spread, throughout the lands of the Azure Jade, through the depths of the demons below the earth, into the Heavens, and the spirits beyond it.
I watched the cycle of the world. And made it mine.
I sensed my roots spreading through the earth, pulling upon death, and my branches calling upon the Qi. It was impossibly vast. The energy of an entire world stirred around my senses, my roots were infinite, and my branches spanned the sky. I let the feelings wash over me, settling down into peace.
This was my cycle. And I would not be consumed by it.
With a tug of my will, I called upon the energies of the world. Gu flowed from deep within the earth, a tide of earth. It flowed into my body, and in my core. Qi stirred from the sky, it moved through the air, sinking down from the heavens, before it too settled inside me.
I let it all flow into me, into the seed that resided within me.
The tree in front of me withered, its branches cracking. Its roots shriveled up, its bark began to peel. And so it crumbled, as the forces of the world permeated through it, and flowed inside of me.
I let the cycle of the world settle within my core. Gu and Qi, turning to Chi, as they unified within my order, and within the First Law I had defined.
A spirit anchor formed.
A loud crashing noise came, as the tree in front of me crumbled, turning to dust. A swirling storm of energies now collided within my core, but they remained unified, each flowing within the plant inside my core that consumed it all. Nourishing itself.
A voice crawled upon my ears. A fading whisper. “We will watch you child. Watch the era your path will bring.”
I felt Ki’s spirit dissolve, swirling within my soul. A strand flowed from me, and into twilight. And I knew the Kirin was gone.
I opened my eyes, and found tears pooled inside of them. Grief filled my heart for a moment, as I wiped my eyes, letting the emotion pass.
A crumpled pile of dust stood in front of me, where once a massive tree had remained. Silently, I bowed my head in respect.
“Thank you. I will not disappoint.”
My gaze turned towards Twilight, and I noticed the spirit had changed. A little green diamond mark was glowing on her forehead now.
I picked up the little flower spirit, and set her on my head. Silently, I watched the darkness stir. A door made of light opened up in front of me, showing the way out.
With a silent look back to where the tree had once stood, I turned to face the light, and stepped outside.