The Calamity's Comfort: I Forged My Own Cheat on a Dead Earth

A few hours later, Maya stopped walking. She had managed to keep moving through sheer stubbornness, but eventually her legs simply refused to cooperate. She took another step, wobbled, and immediately leaned against Leon.

"I can't move anymore."

Leon continued walking.

Maya stared at him. "Leon."

He looked sideways. "What?"

"Carry me."

"No."

Maya's expression fell. "That was quick."

"I'm using both hands."

She looked down. Leon was, in fact, holding several talismans between his fingers while working on another. His attention remained divided between the materials in his hands and the faint Qi patterns forming across them.

"My talisman-making formation is finished," he said. "The backup is finished too. I have a comprehensive set of talismans for almost every situation I can reasonably prepare for, along with backups."

Maya raised an eyebrow. "That's great."

"I'm still missing one."

"Of course you are."

"The combat formation. It is complete but the backup is not finished." He adjusted the arrangement of the talisman in his fingers. "I want to finish it before we reach the border."

Maya sighed. "Can't you save it for later?"

"No."

"I'll compensate you."

Leon finally looked at her. "You don't have a single thing you can pay me with."

Maya froze. "Wow."

Leon returned his attention to the talisman.

"That was unnecessarily harsh," she muttered. "OUCH." She pressed a hand against her chest. "Too much emotional damage with that one."

Leon didn't respond. Maya followed him for another few steps before her legs began trembling again.

"Fine. At least heal my legs."

Leon glanced at her. "Okay."

Maya brightened. "Really?"

"Give me another minute to finish the last talisman."

She sighed dramatically. "Fine."

Leon returned to his work. His Qi had to be spent; that was the other reason he refused to stop. He had already reached the ninth cycle of the sixth stage. If he continued accumulating Qi, he would simply fill his meridians again and prolong the stage. He wanted to expend the remaining Qi, complete the cycle, and then begin the 7th stage. This way his capacity would be 12 units making his life better in all aspects. Progress was easier when every part of his cultivation was integrated into his routine.

The final talisman was completed. Leon exhaled. "Done."

He slipped the finished talismans into his pouch before turning toward Maya. "Stand still."

Maya obeyed. Leon knelt beside her and reached for her left leg. His hand settled around her calf while his other hand rested against her hip. Maya stiffened.

Leon activated his energy manipulation. A faint green aura surrounded his hand. Nothing happened.

Leon frowned. He waited. Nothing. He shifted his hand slightly. Still nothing. He adjusted his grip around her calf and hip and tried again.

Maya's face gradually became more self-conscious. Leon remained completely focused. After several more seconds, Maya let out a short, muffled sound.

"Mmm, Leon!"

Leon looked up. Maya's cheeks were red. "What?"

She gave him an awkward smile. "Are you enjoying that?"

Leon stared at her. "Huh?"

She swallowed a laugh. "Didn't know you were into that particular fetish. If you want your payment that way—"

Leon immediately stood while smiling. "I didn't know you could make those types of jokes." He resumed walking. "You always struck me as the innocent one. Anyway I already explained previously that my Linked Energy Manipulation only works on myself. I can't even enhance other weapons with it."

Maya followed after him. "Couldn't you make up a better excuse if you don't want to heal me?"

Leon shrugged. "You asked while I was tired and occupied with talisman construction." He turned toward her. "If you hadn't, I would've known to reject the proposal immediately."

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Maya folded her arms. "You healed Ethan in front of all of us."

Leon frowned. "I did." His expression changed. He looked genuinely confused. "I didn't even think about it at the time."

Maya waited.

"I just healed him." Leon stared at his own hand. "Despite knowing I can't use it on others." He went quiet. "Why did it work?"

Maya's teasing expression faded.

Leon began thinking aloud. "Maybe because we're too similar."

"Similar?"

"We have exactly the same spirit blood." He looked at her. "Our cultivation rhythms are also nearly identical."

Maya tilted her head. "And?"

"Linked Energy Manipulation is a self-expression of who I am." Leon flexed his fingers. "Maybe it can work on someone sufficiently close to me." He looked toward the road. "I'll have to study it later."

Maya sighed. "So you really weren't just making excuses."

"No. If I didn't want to heal you I would tell you straight to your face. I don't lie to people weaker than me."

"That's somehow more annoying."

Leon ignored that. Instead, he reached into his talisman pouch and pulled out another talisman. He pressed it against his forearm. The talisman disappeared.

Maya stared. "What did you just do?"

Leon reached toward her saber. "Give me that."

She handed it over. He held the weapon in his talisman hand then the saber disappeared.

Maya's eyes widened. "Leon."

He raised his hand. The saber appeared. He immediately dismissed it again, then summoned it once more. The weapon materialized in his hand.

Maya stared.

"Since when can you do that?"

"Recently." He examined the saber before dismissing it again. "Spatial talisman."

Lyra had slowed down nearby and turned around at the commotion. She looked at Leon, her brow furrowing. "Spatial?"

Leon nodded. "It allows me to store things."

Maya looked at the empty space where her saber had vanished. "How much can it store?"

"Not much." He held up his hand, spacing his fingers to indicate the dimensions. "About the size of a backpack."

Maya looked disappointed. "That's still useful."

"It is," Leon continued walking, his boots matching her uneven stride. "But every time I place something inside or remove something, it consumes some of the talisman's energy along with mine. The talisman's own energy also dissipates over time."

"How long does it last?"

"If I don't use it at all, maybe a month."

Maya's expression changed, her analytical side momentarily overriding her exhaustion. "And with normal use?"

"Less than a week, probably." He glanced down at the talisman. "So I have to remember to transfer everything into a new one before it expires."

Maya tilted her head. "Otherwise?"

"Everything stored inside is lost."

She stared at him, completely incredulous. "You've made something that can erase your entire inventory if you forget to replace it."

"Yes."

"And you're comfortable with that?"

"I'll remember.....probably."

Lyra had been listening silently, but now she finally spoke, her tone matching the gravity of her thoughts. "You should still be an apprentice."

Leon looked at her. "Meow?"

"How are you making talismans that only masters can make?" She looked toward the space talisman. "Space enchantments are extremely difficult to deal with."

Leon considered the question. "That's true." He looked down at his hands. "I can only do it because the Qi of Body Tempering cultivation is extremely suited to two concepts."

Lyra's expression became attentive.

"Power," Leon raised one finger. "And space." He raised another. "Power explains why anyone cultivatng Body Tempering is able to enhance things without needing extensive experience with the concept itself." He looked toward the saber. "And space is the other unusually compatible concept for this cultivation path. That's why I can make a storage talisman despite being inexperienced."

Lyra frowned, the explanation defying the traditional curriculum she knew. "So you can make such a complex talisman yet an hour ago I heard you angrily curse at healing talismans which are simpler?"

Leon looked at her. "That's different," he continued walking, his voice level. "Healing talismans are much simpler structurally than spatial talismans.Yet their completion rate is terrible."

She looked genuinely confused. "How can something simpler be harder?"

"Because complexity and conceptual difficulty aren't the same thing." Leon glanced toward Maya's injured leg. "I can make recovery talismans reliably. True healing talismans are another matter."

"What's the difference?"

"The result can look similar from the outside," Leon paused, checking his own parameters. "Recovery uses the concept of power to accelerate regeneration by supercharging it."

Maya listened carefully.

"Regeneration is comparatively easy to achieve," he continued. "A body can naturally recover from injuries through multiple mechanisms. Body Tempering cultivation has an affinity with power, so I can use that affinity to increase the body's regenerative rate."

Lyra nodded slowly. "And your Self Cultivation?"

"Self Cultivation has an affinity with the mind," Leon tapped his temple. "My Self-Reliance Mode accelerates my recovery too, but through a different mechanism. Normally, the body has a natural limit on how quickly it can regenerate. The mind imposes part of that limitation." He looked at his hand. "My mode removes that limiter and lets the body recover at its maximum speed. The required vitality issue is solved because I use internal energy instead—a mixture of vitality and Qi. That supplies what the body needs while the mental limiter is removed."

Lyra considered that, mapping it against her own understanding of medical cultivation. "So regeneration can be achieved through different paths."

"Exactly," Leon continued. "Elemental methods can achieve it too. Wood is particularly suitable. There are probably other methods I haven't encountered yet."

"Then why is healing different?" Lyra pressed.

Leon became quieter, his tone serious. "Because healing isn't simply accelerated regeneration." He paused. "True healing would restore the person to the state they were in before the injury. It would be as if the injury never happened."

Lyra's eyes narrowed.

Leon continued. "That's why it's superior against certain injuries. Imagine a curse that continuously damages someone. Regeneration can keep the person alive while their body constantly repairs the damage but it doesn't remove the curse.True healing would."

Leon glanced toward Maya. "Same with injuries that can't regenerate naturally. If someone loses their heart, regeneration can't create one if the necessary mechanisms no longer exists."

"But healing could restore it."

"Exactly."

Lyra was silent, the concept expanding her understanding. Leon looked toward the horizon. "Regeneration can follow many concepts—power, mind, elements, probably others." He paused. "Healing is different. It seems to be connected to time."

Lyra frowned. "Time?"

"That's the closest explanation I have." Leon shrugged. "Either healing is fundamentally time-based, or there's another concept involved that my divination and hyper-intuition haven't revealed to me yet."

Maya gave him a look. "So true healing is basically reversing what happened?"

"Something like that."

"That's terrifying."

Leon shrugged. "It's useful."

Lyra looked ahead, and then her expression changed completely. "I guess we just use the word healing lightly. Everyone uses that word but they are actually refering to regeneration. Wait."

The others followed her gaze. Something had finally appeared beyond the barren landscape, a massive structure stretching aggressively across the horizon—walls, fortifications, watchtowers. The frontier.

After hours of continuous travel, after the Frost Expanse, the blizzard, the exhaustion, the monsters, and the endless crimson snow, they had finally reached it.

Maya stared, her exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "We made it."

Adrian released a long, heavy breath.

Lyra smiled faintly. "The frontier."