It took me a day to finally create a version of the fire Gu pill that was exploding in the way I wanted it to. My lack of control over Gu and the corrosive nature of the energy make handling it a far more challenging task than Qi. But after a couple more tries, I'd managed to make enough working pills for my plans.
Asking Nyan to go to Liuxiang again, I'd realized that I could just tell the cat what I wanted to say to Liuxiang and it'd be able to communicate that with Liuxiang's spirit. I wasn't sure why, or how that worked but Nyan had plenty of mysteries and I had other important things to work on, so I left the mystery be.
A pouch hung at my waist, filled with five different metal cylinders, carved with thin lines and formations, that carried my Qi and Gu drugnades. I walked through the hidden grove that had become the impromptu meet up spot for everything shady I got up to by now and searched for a suitable patch of open land to work with.
Twilight chimed happily, her eyes wide as she kept looking around in all directions, seeing the world around her for the first time. I kept forgetting that all her knowledge and instincts came from the bond that I shared with her and how she herself was essentially a newborn, with almost no experience with anything.
I took her in my hand, and she stared wide-eyed at me, surprised at having been taken down from her perch. "Do you want to explore?"
The little plant that was starting to look more and more like a doll made of leaves with the flower on her head like white and red streaks of hair, jumped excitedly as a series of whistles and chimes sounded out from her. I laughed out loud, crouching as I set her down atop Sheldon's shell and petting the little big guy once.
"Can you take her around for a while? Just keep her out of trouble if you can."
"Chirp!" Sheldon replied, his mouth shaped in a smile as he extended his neck up to look at the bloodroot.
Sheldon had been surprisingly nice to Twilight, a lot more than I'd expected given how he'd been injured. Labby, on the other hand, hadn't warmed up to Twilight nearly as quickly, which came as a surprise to me. She'd not shown any hesitation with Sheldon or Nyan, so I wondered why she was so hesitant about Twilight.
I watched the little plant spirit ride off ahead on Sheldon's back, singing happily as she took in the sights.
"Are you sure you don't want to go as well?" I asked Labby.
"Labby wants to stay. She wants to see the thing the Great Master has made," Labby replied and I nodded. Fair enough, I could understand that. I was practically burning with the very same desire myself, but a few preparations had to be made first.
I dug into the pouch at my waist, pulling out Qi-imbued slips of paper imprinted with the appropriate characters. Walking around the area with the slips on hand, I mentally measured out the section and placed down the formation slips at a safe distance from each other. I carefully placed each one, pouring my Qi in to hold them in place as I dragged strands of Qi across each, connecting them in the shape of an Octagon formed of Qi threads.
When I placed the last slip, I felt the formation start up as the Qi within the formation vibrated before fading away. I smiled at my success. Liuxiang's tips had certainly helped a lot in my progress for using formations, even though I was still only scratching the surface. I went about placing the other formations down once at a time until a voice interrupted me.
"Apologies for the delay, Senior," Liuxiang said, walking into the grove with a smile.
I paused for a brief moment at the rare smile he wore, before smiling back. "No, you came just at the right time. I've just about set everything up that I could on my own. Now all that's left is for you to take a look and for us to begin testing."
“It seems senior’s understanding of formations has greatly increased. Have the books this one talked about been of any help?”
I nodded back. “They’ve been extremely helpful for sure. Although, I must admit, a lot of things still make me feel lost, which is not a common occurrence,” I said, dusting my hands as I got up.
Liuxiang gave a light nod, as his smile widened. “Formation-building is a difficult art with many intricacies. It takes much dedication and discipline to practice them, virtues worth pursuing for any cultivator.”
“Not enough of them think that.” I snorted and Liuxiang laughed.
“Indeed, but who could deny the mighty? The heavens favor strength. Be it the strength of the mind, physique, or spirit.”
I paused for a moment at the words. In a way, that was more true than I’d ever realized. The Path that we followed showed the understanding of the world, and the closer that understanding was to the truth of things, the more the heavens would favor you. At least, that was the traditional understanding of it. Clearly there was a lot more hidden underneath the surface, with the existence of Gu, the world spirit, and the things that Heavens so dearly wished not to spread out. At least not to those who could not survive the tribulations it sent down.
In a way, the Heavens were a limiter, a constraint set around the world, and what I was doing was arming people to allow them to break the ceiling. The development of science had taken away the danger of almost all natural threats from my old world’s humanity. We’d tamed our world, tamed nature and conquered it. Science had been created as a method of understanding and to better utilize the world around us. To tame it. And the science I was pursuing in this world?
It was meant to tame the Heavens themselves.
“Was there something wrong with what this one said?” Liuxiang asked at my sudden silence.
I shook my head. “No, nothing wrong. It’s just… your words rang more true than I’d expected them to. It made me think about the nature of what I’ve learned for myself, and the things I planned to do.” I dug in my pouch, pulling out one of the Gu-nades from inside, before I looked up to meet Liuxiang’s eyes. “And if this works, then it might very well be the first major step I’ve taken towards that goal.”
Liuxiang regarded me silently. The boy walked closer for a moment, before heading towards the section where I’d set the wards. With surprising dexterity, I saw Liuxiang imprinting characters all around the area, setting up formations with his needles and paper slips with characters set on them.
I took a few steps back, watching as the Qi in the area crackled and fizzled. With a gushing pulse of Qi spreading outwards, a shimmering barrier appeared. Quite similar to the one that Liuxiang had used when I’d freed Sheldon, only this time, it was meant to protect us from the grenade instead.
“It is done,” Liuxiang replied, walking back, and I nodded.
I sent Sheldon a note from our bond to keep Twilight away from the area as all of us walked into the protected section.
I held the Gu-nade out, looking at the unassuming cylinder of metal and the contents within it. I’d tested it for safety and handling so that merely shaking it wouldn’t explode it in my face and so far, everything seemed to have been working perfectly. I could thank Liuxiang for the additional precautions carved into the formations as well. It’d taken two weeks simply making sure this design would be safe.
I took a deep breath, turning to glance at Liuxiang who nodded. Zhi Zhu appeared on his shoulder, watching intently as well, and I felt purple lightning crackle next to my cheeks, as Labby mimicked my nervous excitement.
“Let’s do this then,” I said, pressing onto the top level, the spoon of the grenade. I pulsed my Qi, as the formations on the grenade lit up. Taking a step ahead, I channeled Qi in my arm and threw with all my power.
The grenade shot forward like an arrow cutting through the air at high speeds. I sent a thick pulse of Gu towards the weapon and on instinct crouched down to brace for the explosion.
A slow moment passed in agonizing silence, and I feared that my project failed. That was when the first shockwave hit me.
Fire blazed like a searing burning light ahead, as a cracking whip of air ran against the formation and shook the ground beneath my feet. I covered my eyes, looking away from the explosion as I stumbled from the tremors shaking the ground beneath me. Another shockwave followed soon after, with a blast of wind that caused the trees to tumble and fall over, blasted into splinters as they flew around in an inferno of fire up ahead.
My heart raced, and all sound was drowned out. A dust cloud loomed in the area, covering the devastation, and we watched in stunned silence as trees continued to topple over one after the other. When the dust settled, I could finally take a look at the impact.
A crater sat on the ground with roots nearby that had turned pitch black. Nothing remained in the immediate vicinity of the explosion, the ground black and scarred with wood that had turned to ash within moments of the Gu-nade’s detonation.
I stumbled out of the protected area and suddenly felt the surrounding air sting my skin with its heat. I stared at the section, feeling neither Qi nor Gu present, as if a void had been ripped open into the world, similar to the void that had been present in Zhang’s core.
“Labby… feels scared.”
I nodded, walking further ahead as I crouched down to touch the ground and saw silvery ash underneath the black hardened surface.
I heard Liuxiang walk up closer to me, his face deathly still and passive. “Had… Senior anticipated this?”
“I… no. This is far beyond all my expectations. All this from a single pill? This- this is devastating,” I replied, a tremble to my voice. The crashing sound of another tree broke my thoughts as I turned to look at Liuxiang.
“This one knows of only a handful of people within the seventh peak city who could survive a direct blow from this weapon. This… is a weapon that could kill Elders if used in an ambush,” Liuxiang said, his voice shaking. I nodded, turning back down to look at the burnt ground.
It seems I had not made a mere gu-nade. But an honest to god mini gu-nuke instead. I rubbed my hand, getting up.
“I can’t use this. Not until things get extremely dire. I’ll need to find an alternative for the tournament,” I said, turning to Liuxiang who nodded back.
“Can you please… not mention this to anyone else for now? We’ll test the other gu-nades later, but I’d like for this weapon to not fall into the wrong hands. I’d… never expected this level of strength. I need some time to think over things.”
Liuxiang opened his mouth, about to reply when I heard some rustling and noises come from up ahead. My eyes widened in surprise as I realized something very important.
There was no way the sect had not noticed the explosion. We were so screwed.