NOVEL FROG Chapter 46: The Prestige of a Celestial
Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 46: The Prestige of a Celestial
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A searing bolt of lightning slammed down from the sky with blinding speed. Bing Meilu's seventy-two moons-shaped Dao-Platforms circulated, a gushing river of Yin-Qi gathering in her hand. The difference in sheer reserves between seventy-two peak First Realms and seventy-two new Second Realm cultivators was already immense, allowing Bing Meilu to power moves that would have utterly drained her before. Yet, there was also a qualitative difference. Each of her moons regulated the Qi around it like a stabilizing pin, allowing for fine manipulation not possible in the First Realm. It was time to show The Dao of Heaven what she could do with just a Foundation Establishment Cultivation base.
"The greater the Yang, the greater the Yin. Extremity births reversion. Heaven-Earth Inverting Palm!"
She thrust her hand upwards. A pale white energy of torrential Yin gently danced upwards into the sky, filled with elegant smoothness. It met the bolt of lightning without hesitation. The two power mingled for a moment.
The bolt of lightning froze midair. The extreme Yang within it became an extreme Yin. The dynamic movement and speed of the Yang Heavenly Tribulation Lightning inverted into the slowest, stillest manifestation of the broad and sleeping Earth.
Of the Eight Trigrams, Heaven was the highest Yang and Earth was the highest Yin. Like all the manifestations of Liangyi, of the duality of creation, they were intrinsically linked. Those who had a deep understanding of the fundamental truths of Liangyi could manipulate the world in ways that would confound the less understanding.
The Crystal Providence was the Goddess who had ruled over Yin in the wild times of yore long past. As her inheritor, a deep understanding of Yin and Yang was a required foundation of the Dao that Bing Meilu walked.
It was as if the sky shuddered with fear at Bing Meilu's attack. Such did not require 'relatively' much Qi but instead required a deep, masterful enlightenment of natural law. I was not something that a mortal should ever have achieved in thier limited lifespans. It was proof of the power and stature she had once held, that her threat was not an idle one. Though she was in the body of a small child, her soul had been that of a Celestial, who had birthed her very own Heaven and Earth and more than possessed the potential to truly destroy the Dao of Heaven that governed the Jade Sparrow World.
"Do you understand now, blind skies? Those who oppose me shall die without question, whether man, beast or even Providence."
If even in the Second Realm she could reverse the authority of Heaven with a palm, then could she really destroy them in the Immortal Realm? It was too late for the Dao of Heaven to back down now. As the gestalt manifestation of natural law, it was bound by its own rules and declarations. It would oppose Bing Meilu until the very end, even if it meant its own death. To turn back on its own Law would be suicide as well, contrary to the very nature of a 'Providence'.
Swords, spears and halberds of lightning showered down endlessly from the sky like an entire army of immortal thunder spirits was pelting her with their weapons. Yet, Bing Meilu simply thrust her palm upwards at the sky, replacing Heaven with Earth, Yang with Yin, and speed with stillness. The weapons looked eery, an entire armament frozen in the air and unmoving.
Fifteen serpents of thunder coiled down from the sky, baring their fangs in rage. Each held the strength of a mid-stage foundation establishment enemy. The Heavens were attempting to overwhelm her Inverting palm move with sheer Qi. No matter her level of enlightenment and mastery of natural law and Dao, Bing Meilu had a limit to how much Qi she could unleash at any given moment. By the time she froze a few of the serpents with her Palm, she would hopefully die.
Instead of retaliating, the girl clasped her hands behind her back, utterly expressionless. The serpents of thunder attacked at once, fifteen fangs of thunder stabbing into her. The lightning and raging will of the Heavens began to pour into her.
'Every Yang contains a seed of Yin. The greater the disparity, the greater the transformation. Now blossom!'
Within each of the serpents, a bead of ice appeared, swallowing the Yang energy around them and yet paradoxically growing colder. Rapidly the seeds grew and grew until fifteen huge lotuses of ice blossomed around Bing Meilu, crystal petals opening up. Where the snake's fangs had once pierced her, lotus roots now sat, burrowing into her flesh and connecting her to the flowers. The Yin energy within was like a battery for the girl. It flooded into her, completely replenishing her reserves and more. Now, she was ready to go on the offence.
"Yang Conquering Sky-Overturning Finger!"
Bing Meilu lifted a single finger and gently thrust it toward the sky. A thin bolt of blue light swept upwards, filled with ten entire Dantians of her Qi. The lotuses shrank, supplying her with even more Yin Qi. The attack was incredibly fast, and yet somehow seemed to move slowly through the air. It was condensed thick with power yet seemed dilute and imperceptible.
The black thunderclouds split open. The air screamed as lightning exploded through it, the fury and pain of the Heavens let loose to rampage. The nature of her attack was one that became stronger the greater the Yang of the enemy, a technique almost tailor-made to defeat Heaven Qi. The feeling of extermination that had locked onto Bing Meilu weakened as some of the clouds dispersed.
Then, it began to exponentially strengthen. The massive disk of black tribulation clouds began to gather into a single huge floating sphere. A huge Yang aura filled the air as the pressure grew stronger and stronger. The Tribulation was gathering to release a single attack in an attempt to exterminate her in one fell swoop.
The attack grew stronger and stronger, more and more lightning gathering into the ball. Eventually, the tribulation reached the limit of the destructive force it could unleash under its own rules. Yet the aura of danger grew even stronger without limit. The aura of a boundless, gushing vitality began to shed from the thunder. In order to justify releasing this attack, which could kill even the average Core Formation Cultivator, the Heavens had to return some of the life energy that normally filled tribulations, to compensate for the increase in danger.
Bing Meilu exhaled in disappointment, staring impassively at the heavens, a frosty chill swirling around her.
"I expected more. Just this is not enough." she declared arrogantly.
The black clouds were completely swallowed by the attack, disappearing completely to leave behind an ominously floating sphere of Heavenly Tribulation Lightning. It seemed as bright as the sun, illuminating everything for kilometres. The horrifying pressure of extermination locked onto her once more. This was not an attack that could be inverted by her palm, the sheer Qi overwhelming in amount.
Then, with a blinding flash of light, the sphere exploded. A river of five-coloured lightning blossomed forth from it, glinting with red, white, yellow, black and blue. Normally, five-coloured lightning, which contained each of the five phases, would appear only in the Third Realm tribulation, allowing one to baptize and complete their Core. In less time than it took a spark to fly from a piece of flint, the lightning had nearly arrived upon her.
Bing Meilu raised her hand, splaying her fingers. The blue lotuses drained completely, nearly her entire meridian system pouring into her hand as she unleashed an attack of incredible power. A mighty, noble aura erupted from her, filled with a deep enlightenment and mastery of Law.
"Five Fingers Span The Cosmos."
If Yang was life, Yin was Death. If Yang was Movement, Yin was stillness.
If Yang was connection, interplay and combination then Yin was distance, discordance, and decentralization, the breakdown and entropy of all things. As her fingers spread, the distance between her and the lightning bolt expanded. From an outside view, it seemed to freeze in the air, though in truth it was still ripping towards her at blinding speeds.
Her fingers splayed even further and the lightning seemed to spread out into strands, like a string fraying at the end. The single attack, on a fundamental level, was a combination of countless aspects of Qi. Thunder, Heat, each of the Five Phases, heaven, lifeforce, movement, and even the visible light that made it possible to see the thunder. All of these components were part of the lightning bolt and they began to shear apart into countless gossamer strands of Qi. Sweat poured down Bing Meilu's forehead as her she spread her fingers, the lightning fraying further and further, each aspect of its existence separating and decaying.
With a mighty ripping noise, the lightning fully split! Hundreds of various coloured pillars of Qi pull away from each other, filling the air like spectral threads left behind by a god of weaving.
Bing Meilu waved her hand, and a single thread was pulled down towards her. The aura it released was one of boundless vitality and life. There was far more of the precious life energy than would normally appear in a Second Realm tribulation. Only by including so much could the Dao of Heaven justify to itself such an attack. Reward and danger went hand and hand, after all.
Sweating, the Yin-cultivator let the stream of Qi penetrate her body. It poured through every cell of her body, not just healing but rebuilding her body and rejuvenating her spirit. A body baptized with such life force would possess endless vitality and numerous more minor benefits.
She relaxed her hand finally, drenched in sweat and nearly unconscious, her entire meridian system practically dry of Qi. Around her, various aspects of the thunder uselessly faded away. What danger was heat without the ability to move? What danger was lightning without the ability to find her? The attack was more than the sum of its parts, and now, decayed, it could harm no one.
And with that, with the great five-coloured tribulation lightning defeated, her Foundation Establishment Tribulation officially came to an end. Her cultivation smoothly stabilized past the barrier of Foundation Establishment and the pressure of the tribulation faded to nothing.
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Countless miles away, a white-robed priest sat in a save. Emblazoned on each of his empty eye sockets was a golden character for 'Heaven' that glew softy with Yang light. He seemed to be staring in a certain direction intently, a wide grin on his face.
"I'm getting closer...The Will of Heaven shall be done."
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Bing Meilu sat in meditation, refilling her Qi reserves. The Ashen Mountains, filled with burning Yang Qi, was not ideal for her cultivation like the Flesh Mountains had been. But it was still better than neutral Qi. Yang became Yin and icy energy rushed into her dry Dantian, flooding it with liquid. After an hour, she decided she had recovered enough. She still had to find out how the Faction had fared fighting a Drake without her.
"Sky-Waltz of the Swan."
Her Foundation Establishment cultivation exerted itself. A chilly wind swept up from underneath her, and she took off into the air, flying under her own power for the first time since she had reincarnated. It was nothing impressive, just the basic flying technique of the Moon-Crying Swan Palace.
Air-travel in a place like the Ashen Mountains was normally dangerous and unadvisable. There were countless wyverns, feathered serpents and ash ravens that roamed the sky in search of prey. But, at this point, Bing Meilu did not fear anything below the Core Formation Realm, and such an enemy would be able to track her flying or not anyways.
Minutes later the result of the battle became visible to her. A cracked, charred landscape, ash baked to rock, basalt columns crushed and melted. The Drake's corpse was missing, likely already completely butchered.
"They managed to kill it without me?"
She had been expecting to come back to them still locked against in. In fact, she'd been hoping so as well. She needed an enemy to test her newfound power against. She flew further, making her way to the hot-spring-filled valley they made camp. Bing Meilu blinked as her qi-enhanced eyes zoomed in on the camp below.
'Is that... Jiang Hu? Why is he attacking the faction?' She bit her lip.