Cultivation System: Elder Edition

Chapter 331

Truths and Lies (XVII)

It was beautiful, akin to a thousand flowers blossoming in the span of a few seconds, cradling the world awash with colors.

At the moment of collision of two energies, a massive pillar of rainbow lights exploded upward and downward, shattering the stone of the arena so violently that it destabilized the entire thing. It began to collapse, like dominos falling, yet it was only the beginning; the pillar exploded outward, but only in one direction--toward the Young Lady Yawen.

The way it bent was as though it were made of rubber, curving like the bow's limbs. Young Lady reacted just in time, storming her fingers with lightning and tossing forth a massive sphere of energy, dwarfing an entire building in size.

Yet another collision happened, with the first one still reeling. The dual explosions propelled forth such agonizing levels of energy that Shao Li felt the skin on his face distort and even melt under pressure.

The winds were so rapid and violent they took the calm waters of the lake and made them turbulent, as though they'd come to sail on the most vicious ocean waters.

They were so biting and sharp they cut into the stone of the arenas, ripping up even the surrounding ones.

Even the folk who ran off and were hiding at the lake's shore felt the might of death, forced to retreat even further back.

Shao Li's fingers were trembling, and try as he may, he was unable to write a word.

In part, it was because he felt his body tearing up--if he continued standing here, he would collapse alongside the arena itself. But in part... it was because, for the first time in his life, he could not find the words within himself.

Children who looked like they ought to have still been playing with their parents were instead wreaking havoc on the Moon Lake's force.

The lauded genius, Young Lady Yawen, who was said to even have a chance of becoming an Empress in the distant future, was just barely holding on.

The secondary explosion had barreled her backwards so violently that both her arms were torn clean off as her body shot back into the city, collapsing through several dozen buildings and leaving them in ruins.

The shadowed figures were all blown backwards as even the children struggled desperately to leave the collapsing stone platform, rushing off to the shore.

All the while, the darkness above remained--still and unmoving, even as the world around it was collapsing under its own weight.

What words was he to write? For, he knew, they would be his final--as soon as the dark ink turned the paper wet, he would die. He would use the last shred of his strength to shield his imprint upon history, his life be damned.

The world was ending--the platforms were beginning to crack like spiderwebs, and the sheer onslaught had reached even the town, burying and shattering the countless piers looming over the water's surface before moving on to the lake-adjacent buildings. The enduring stone that had stood for hundreds of years was being destroyed, buried.

He was ready to die when he found himself dragged by something he could not see or even feel, hurled over the edge of the collapse, tumbling gently across the ground, his writings settling right by him in the dry grass, perfectly preserved.

Who was it? Nobody.

He felt no Qi, not even shamanic sorcery, both of which he knew how to recognize well enough; it was akin to a ghost, some invisible thing that...

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Guardian!!

He remembered the eternal tales of the Moon Lake's Guardian! The elusive, ethereal thing that most of the world believed was a lie made up by the City Lord!

But it wasn't a lie!

"T-The Guardian is helping us!!" somebody else shouted, seeming to startle awake the wave of recognition.

"The Lake's Guardian is real?!"

"The City Lord wasn't lying?"

"Hah! Of course! Those lunatics have angered the Lake's Guardian! Now that it's awake, it will kill them all!"

... was that truly it? Shao Li wondered--though inwardly.

There was little good that could come from contradicting a zealot mob.

The Guardian did not 'awaken' when the kids started fighting, or even when the Young Lady Yawen was first slain. It did not awaken when that dark, foreboding cloud of shadows appeared overhead.

It only 'awoke' when it looked like the collapse threatened people's lives.

Except... precisely whose life? Shao Li caught it from the corner of his eyes--quite a few people have already died to the shockwaves of the battle. Their bodies lay unmoving, drifting along the lake's surface. Quite a few were flung into the city itself as the waves raged.

The crystalline blue waters now bore a tinge of scarlet, dreary and mad. If the Guardian awoke to shelter them, then why were so many lying dead?

No, that man--the strange man those children called their Master... the Guardian awoke when that man's life was threatened.

Even now, as the platforms are collapsing, chunks of stones large enough to flatten a man falling into the lake below, he remains standing, his feet bereft of floor--standing on air itself.

Like the God of Wind.

**

Hm.

Hmm.

Hmmmmmm.

I... I think I'm done with this world. Or, at the very least, I want to go to the mountains, find a nice cave, and hibernate for a few thousand years.

I should have been buried under the mountain of stones or drowned within the overcoming waves, or I should have been like Lao Shun and the kids who shuttled out to the shore where they are now safe. But... I'm not. Somehow, someway, I'm standing on air. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what others believe.

But beneath my feet is a rug. Or a carpet. Or just some cloth. I can't even tell. It wouldn't bother me so much, as that strange thing had already intervened a few times beforehand, and I'd even be grateful to it for saving my life... but it just had to go and do it.

It had to reveal itself.

That billion-point cost? It waived it, somehow. It forced me to look at its status. Well, part of it, at least.

And now... I couldn't maintain my ignorance. It took a freakin' sledgehammer to the wall I was desperately trying to keep standing and slammed through it, not caring what it would do to what was on the other end: my already poor mental health.

[--entity discovered]

[... entity has elected to reveal itself to you. Creation Points cost has been nulled]

[...]

[Creator's Eyes reveal an anomaly]

[Target: Eternity]

[Age: Incalculable]

[Talent: ???]

[Cultivation Realm: None]

[Cultivation Method: None]

[Cultivation Arts: None]

[...]

[Shamanic Tier: None]

[...]

[Traits]

[Eternal (???) -- that which is forever]

[First Word (???) -- the very first Word ever created by the First Shaman, aided by the Union of Spirits; it resulted in the first and last ever creation of False Sentience]

[Curious (???) -- its curiosity is boundless] 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

[Omnitemporal Perception (???) -- time is a river with neither the beginning nor the end, and while the rest swim in it, it merely observes it]

[--Other Traits remain sealed]

[...]

[Countless anomalies detected]

[Only three have been purpose revealed to the host]

[...]

[Temporal Anomaly (Genesis) -- Eternity experiences time non-linearly; all things have neither happened nor will happen but have also happened and were experienced by it. The host's nature, however, was the very first time it could not 'see'. It was blind]

[Cursed (Genesis) -- Words, Martial Arts, and even Sorcery all are derived from Dao, ultimately. No matter how they differ, no matter how different their Pathos are, they are all of One. Only Dao can infuse thought into a husk--a Heavenly Law observed by cultivators, shamans, and pagans alike. Eternity is a Breaker of that Law--its sentience was not granted by Dao, and its thought was not mercifully yielded; it self-actualized from the Word spoken. Spirits, terrified of what they had done, accursed its existence, granting it a paradox of insatiable curiosity yet forcing it to never experience anything new. Since they could not kill it, they'd hoped the accursed existence of the anomaly would not anger Dao. They, as none did, never understood]

[Observer (Genesis) -- Eternity's ability to interact with reality is extremely limited. As it exists within the temporal plane of non-linearity, it is bound to a path beyond its will. Though Host's existence alleviates that somewhat and allows a level of interaction, it is temporary and will consume an exuberant amount of Creation Points. As the host was unaware of Eternity's action, its interceding will not take away from the host's points; from hereon, however, any time Eternity desires to intercede, you will have to both approve and pay the appropriate price]

[...]

[Recommendation: the system does not currently have a recommendation for the host.]

[...]

[Final assessment: It is impossible to draw any kind of assessment]