Chapter 127 – Shaken, Knots, and Something Stirs

PoV Change:

"Young Lord, are you done with your seclusion? Your master is anxious to hear your report on the collaboration with the Heavenfall Legion. If you are feeling well enough, you may find him at the..."

Old Ji finally pushed open the door and saw that the young master's cultivation chamber was empty save for a single jade on the meditation mat. A sick feeling formed in his stomach as he went to pick it up.

'Please, not again!' He fervently wished.

Old Ji's instincts were right on the mark, as the message inside it only said,

"I'm bored. Going out to play! I think I detected a whiff of something foul, but it's old and faint, so I might go take a look. I'll be back when I'm back! Let Master know for me, Old Ji!"

The jade was crumpled to dust with a frustrated groan just as an image of something inappropriate rose to his mind.

PoV Change:

As Ren turned to run, he saw that the ghosts had appeared behind him and were approaching from all directions! And the closer their translucent and flickering forms got, the more fear and despair crept unnaturally into his thoughts. Ren’s heart tempering may have allowed him to withstand the attention of one agitated ghost, but there was no way he could fight off this many.

“I can’t even blame Bai Kang for running, but couldn’t he at least throw out a warning?!” He thought bitterly as he hefted a limp Mei Ling.

And surrounded as he was, Ren was struggling to find the path of least resistance to escape through. He recalled his swords with a thought, his mental capacity dedicated to running calculations at full speed. Without waiting, he began running in the same direction as Bai Kang, reducing the number of pathways he had to calculate. However, no path looked easy, and in the one he chose, he would be drawing particularly close to 2-3 of the ghosts on his way out.

Gritting his teeth, Ren engaged the full might of his body cultivation as he dodged the grasping hands without reducing his speed. He needed to get to a certain distance away from the tree before ghosts relented and they would be safe.

But a puzzling idea rose. “But why should I run? Isn’t it safe here?”

“Why was he acting so frantic? I should just stay. I could be happy here! Not alone anymore.”

His stride showed signs of hesitation.

“Why would I run from the one I love? Why be unhappy apart when I could just give her my heart to ea…”

"Ren, I feel sick. I don’t want to stay here any more! Can we go?" a timid voice interrupted.

“!!!”

Yu Ran’s request, coupled with a pained but distinctly human moan from behind his shoulder, snapped Ren out of his blissful emotions, and he looked up to find a withered hand right before his very eyes.

Ren’s body was filled with unfamiliar yin qi, and he was freezing, but sweat continued to pour down his face as he twisted wildly, straining his muscles and tendons to avoid the touch of that eerie hand. Despite his best efforts to deny it, a part of him lamented the loss of that comforting cocoon of emotions the creatures had tried to snare him with. The other cold and rational part felt fear at just how insidious the attack was.

And in that moment of stress and conflicting emotions, as he roused himself from the remnants of whatever mental attack that had nearly laid him low, he saw it. As the figure of the ghost flickered in and out of sight, his senses picked up a dull golden strand emerging from a small, balled-up knot shimmering faintly at the center of the ghost’s figure. It looked twisted and frayed, and it was only a single, knotted strand, but he could feel the tenacity and anguish contained within it.

‘It looks a little similar to my karmic strand constructs? And why do I feel the need to erase it?’

Unable to spare it further thought, he straightened and sprinted away from the hoard of unwillingly separated, miserable lovers. His steps regained their confidence and began to consume the distance rapidly, bringing them to safety without giving much thought to direction.

“Well, as safe as I can manage in such a place." He thought with a sinking feeling, in more ways than one, as an enormous swamp stretched out before his eyes.

The swampy marshes were filled with thick black, sludgy liquid that Ren chose to fly over on his sword, lightly gagging at the oily scent. He hadn’t encountered any large creatures yet, but without a yang talisman, he was tempting fate the longer he went without protection.

Ren elected to rely on Yu Ran’s instincts, as his mental state was too disturbed from the earlier encounter. The little snake pointed him toward a dead tree on the edge of a dark and grimy pool of unknown liquid. Trusting the little one, Ren climbed and set Mei Ling down in the small space and began throwing out concealing arrays. He didn’t trust his temporary security arrays were strong or discerning enough to keep out the diverse threats that existed here, so it was better not to be found in the first place.

With finally a moment to think, Ren squeezed into the tiny nook on top of the tree and assessed his dire situation. One ally was missing with another disabled for an unknown amount of time. Lacking yang attribute defenses and techniques of sufficient power to ensure security. His dao heart had been shaken, both by the ghosts' attack and by his failure to endure it without external help.

“What a disaster! I’ve unconsciously started to believe that nothing could harm me of late. I knew the dangers of this land but entered casually for the first time, with little preparation and an unknown, unreliable ally, intending to just stay in the outskirts. Aiyaah! Birds die for food and men die for greed. Let this encounter be a lesson to me!”

As much as he wanted to continue berating himself, he found his thoughts unconsciously being dragged toward that dull gold knot he had spied in the final moments of his flight. Giving up on his self-recriminations rather too quickly, he devoted his attention to solving that puzzle first.

“That had to be a karmic strand! And not a construct! I’ve been able to faintly see karmic strands inside my own dantian for a while now, ever since I entered the late stage of the foundation realm, but never outside. Why would it appear in a ghost of all things?” Ren wracked his mind, but the answer became apparent soon enough.

“Of course! Ghosts are the remnants of people with unresolved wishes tying them to this plane.” It was one of the most popular ideologies he had read concerning ghosts. Strong ties combined with sufficient yin qi could form specters and spirits. The nature of their unresolved ties further determined the type of creatures they became.

“And I think I’ve figured out why it's called the Tree of Sorrows! But if ghosts are fundamentally bound to this world through karma, then it makes sense why I could detect it on them. However, it only raises more questions about my instinctual response to it.”

He came up with a few theories but couldn’t determine why he felt the urge to erase their karma, only that he strongly disliked the sensations that knot brought up inside him.

‘And how would I even do it?! Destroy them like I break my own constructs? But that’s just me considering my debts to be balanced. How would I go about balancing debts for people long dead? And I refuse to track down their specific loved ones and help them resolve their grudges. Haven’t I just learned how vast this world is?’

Yu Ran coiled around his neck and nudged his cheek, detecting the turmoil of emotions inside Ren. The little one was pretty exhausted from the incident too and chose to nap soon after. Even as he complained to no one in particular, Ren caught himself seriously forming plans to return and obey the instinct; it was just that strong!

Just then Mei Ling stirred and opened her eyes. She groaned and stretched as if waking from a restful sleep as Ren stared incredulously.

“The audacity of this girl! Are you resting at home? Wake up!” Ren whispered hoarsely, trying to keep his voice down.

Mei Ling stilled and looked around briefly until Ren finally saw traces of panic appear on her face.

“What happened?! Where are we?” She whispered back.

Ren let out a sigh and began to recall the events after she captured her ghost. She listened silently, her face only twisting at the mention of her senior brother abandoning the two to their fates before letting out a sigh of her own.

“I heartily disapprove of his actions and will never forgive him, but I can understand. His cultivation is particularly prone to heart demons. Attacks on the heart and mind are particularly effective on him. He generally means well even if he is swayed by his emotions too easily. It’s why I normally tolerate so many of his annoying antics. That one ghost was scary enough, but if what you say is true, then he would have been less than useful even with all his protections. Worse, if he succumbed to possession, he might have turned on us.”

Disbelief was plain on Ren’s face as he remarked, “Weak against mental attacks but still dared to enter a land of ghosts? Courting death!”

“I didn’t invite him! He asked Master… who I now suspect intended to teach him a lesson. Argh! She must have thought him smart enough to use the numerous defensive talismans he had.”

Ren scoffed, “With the pace at which he was using them, I figured he must have hundreds!”

“No, he’s not that wealthy. Yang talismans aren’t that chea…” Realization came over both of them, and the same thought entered their minds simultaneously.

‘That idiot showed off too much and burnt through his supplies!’

They came to the agreement to drop the matter without a single spoken word. After all, they had more pressing matters.

“We need to leave, possibly track down Bai Kang if we can, but you may just have to rely on your master to rescue him.”

“That’s all well and good, but which way is out? These lands change rapidly enough without me losing consciousness for so long.”

Without a single moment of hesitation, Ren pointed directly in front of him. Then tilted his head as he tried to uncover the source of his certainty.

It's my karmic connections! I know the general direction of the people I have formed connections with even if I don’t know their distance or location. But unless they all moved, just by recalling where the majority were before I entered, I can determine roughly which direction to go. Does this mean I can never get lost?!’ Ren was excited to find a new use for his karmic ties. He was really making a lot of progress in that aspect on this day.

Just then the sound of disturbed waters reached their ears. A parade of animals with patchy fur and gaping wounds was shuffling through the oily liquid of the swamp. They should have been dead judging by their state, but they limped on regardless. Each one had a softly glowing flower growing from their heads. Ren recognized it as a parasitic plant of some kind, and though he really wanted to take a sample, he refrained with some difficulty. The fearsome, bloodthirsty aura they emitted might have helped.

“I haven’t gained complete control over the ghost I captured, so I need to meditate and focus on my cultivation to assimilate it. Once I do that, I can call on it to protect us on the way out.” Mei Ling suggested. Ren agreed considering he had no better ideas to offer.

He too settled in to meditate and possibly cultivate his heart using his recent experiences. That frightening temptation to stay and let the ghosts feed on him could at least be put to good use and help him grow stronger. As he turned his gaze inward, Ren received an unwelcome surprise as something had begun to stir inside his dantian.

“Aren’t there way more crimson threads around the demonic thumb than before?”